Nanowerk February 18, 2021
The faithful mapping of information between matter and light can facilitate communication between distant quantum processing nodes. Strong interaction benefits from tightly confined light fields, as well as from many atoms interacting simultaneously with such fields. An international team of researchers (Austria, Germany Israel) realized efficient light-matter interface by gradually thinning an optical fiber down to a diameter of 200 nm, about 600 times narrower than its original width, and about a quarter of the optical wavelength guided by the fiber. Reaching these dimensions resulted in a unique optical field with more than 99% of the energy residing outside the fiber itself, extending far beyond its surface. Such a field allows a relatively long interaction time between the light and the atoms. They demonstrated narrow coherent resonances of electromagnetically induced transparency for signals at the single-photon level and long relaxation times of atoms excited by the guided mode…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Super-extended evanescent field of a nanofiber interacting with atomic vapor… Credit: Optica Vol. 8, Issue 2, pp. 208-215 (2021)