Abstract
We describe the loading of laser-cooled rubidium atoms into a single-mode hollow-core photonic-crystal fiber. Inside the fiber, the atoms are confined by a far-detuned optical trap and probed by a weak resonant beam. We describe different loading methods and compare their trade-offs in terms of implementation complexity and atom-loading efficiency. The most efficient procedure results in loading of ,000 rubidium atoms, which creates a medium with an optical depth of inside the fiber. Compared to our earlier study [1] this represents a sixfold increase in the maximum achieved optical depth in this system.
2 More- Received 21 April 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.83.063830
©2011 American Physical Society
Synopsis
Atoms down the tube
Published 23 June 2011
Dense clouds of cold atoms have been produced in thin optical fibers.
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