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Low-light Level Interactions with Rb in HC-PBGF
We show that rubidium vapor can be produced within the core of a photonic band-gap fiber yielding an optical depth in excess of 2000. Our technique for producing the vapor is based on coating the inner walls of the fiber core with organosilane and using light-induced atomic desorption to release Rb atoms into the core. As an initial demonstration of the potential of this system for supporting ultralow-level nonlinear optical interactions, we perform electromagnetically induced transparency with control-field powers in the nanowatt regime, which represents more than a 1000-fold reduction from the power required for bulk, focused geometries.
A schematic of the experimental setup. Part of cell 1 is expanded to illustrate the region of the cell in front of the fiber tip. The beam reflected off a mirror at the back end of cell 1 is used to calibrate the density in the cell.
S. Ghosh, A. R. Bhagwat, C. K. Renshaw, S. Goh, A. L. Gaeta, and B. J. Kirby, "Low-Light-Level Optical Interactions with Rubidium Vapor in a Photonic Band-Gap Fiber," Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 023603 (2006). PDF
Optical Interactions with Acetylene in HC-PBGF
In parallel with the development of novel fibers in the field of telecommunications, there has been tremendous progress in the field of coherent atom-photon interactions. The richness of physics in manipulating quantum states of matter and creating coherent superpositions has led to numerous studies in atom cooling, Bose-Einstein condensation, quantum information and computation, and electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). In particular, the phenomenon of EIT has led to an assortment of potentially practical applications such as ultra-slow light, light storage in a medium, and single-photon switching. Our research is motivated by the desire to integrate novel photonic devices with coherent atom-photon interactions and to build useful devices for the fields of telecommunications and quantum information processing. Hollow-core photonic band-gap fiber, with the ability to confine atoms and molecules to its core for extremely long interaction lengths and to integrate itself readily with the existing telecommunication technology, seems to be the ideal bridge between photonics and quantum optics.
Measured Doppler Broadened absorption spectra for the R(15) transition (grey line) in acetylene within a 1.3-m segment of photonic-band-gap fiber. In presence of a strong pump (320 mW, tuned to the P(17) transition) a transparency window opens, bearing the signature of coherent resonant interaction (orange line).
S. Ghosh, J. E. Sharping, D. G. Ouzounov, and A. L. Gaeta, "Resonant Optical Interactions with Molecules Confined in Photonic Band-Gap Fibers," Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 093902 (2005). PDF
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