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arXiv:1502.01151 · Optica

Storage of fiber-guided light in a nanofiber-trapped ensemble of cold atoms

C. Sayrin, C. Clausen, B. Albrecht, Philipp Schneeweiß, Arno Rauschenbeutel

Published Apr 3, 2015• 138 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Tapered optical fibers with a nanofiber waist are versatile tools for interfacing light and matter. In this context, laser-cooled atoms trapped in the evanescent field surrounding the optical nanofiber are of particular interest: They exhibit both long ground-state coherence times and efficient coupling to fiber-guided fields. Here, we demonstrate electromagnetically induced transparency, slow light, and the storage of fiber-guided optical pulses in an ensemble of cold atoms trapped in a nanofiber-based optical lattice. We measure a slow-down of light pulses to group velocities of 50 m/s. Moreover, we store optical pulses at the single photon level and retrieve them on demand in the fiber after 2 microseconds with an overall efficiency of (3.0 +/- 0.4) %. Our results show that nanofiber-based interfaces for cold atoms have great potential for the realization of building blocks for future optical quantum information networks.

DOI
10.1364/optica.2.000353

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Tapered optical fibers with a nanofiber waist are versatile tools for interfacing light and matter. In this context, laser-cooled atoms trapped in the evanescent field surrounding the optical nanofiber are of particular interest: They exhibit both long ground-state coherence times and efficient coupling to fiber-guided fields. Here, we demonstrate electromagnetically induced transparency, slow light, and the storage of fiber-guided optical pulses in an ensemble of cold atoms trapped in a nanofiber-based optical lattice. We measure a slow-down of light pulses to group velocities of 50 m/s. Moreover, we store optical pulses at the single photon level and retrieve them on demand in the fiber after 2 microseconds with an overall efficiency of (3.0 +/- 0.4) %. Our results show that nanofiber-based interfaces for cold atoms have great potential for the realization of building blocks for future optical quantum information networks.
We report the experimental observation of slow-light and coherent storage in a setting where light is tightly confined in the transverse directions. By interfacing a tapered optical nanofiber with a cold atomic ensemble, electromagnetically induced transparency is observed and light pulses at the single-photon level are stored in and retrieved from the atomic medium. The decay of efficiency with storage time is also measured and related to concurrent decoherence mechanisms. Collapses and revivals can be additionally controlled by an applied magnetic field. Our results based on subdiffraction-limited optical mode interacting with atoms via the strong evanescent field demonstrate an alternative to free-space focusing and a novel capability for information storage in an all-fibered quantum network.
We built a new experiment using cold atoms interacting with the light guided by an optical nanofiber. We first developed a nanofiber manufacturing bench. By heating and stretching a commercial optical fiber, a silica cylinder of 400 nm diameter is obtained. The light guided in these nanofibers is strongly focused over the whole length and exhibits strong evanescent fields. We then prepared a vacuum chamber and the laser system necessary for the manipulation of cold atoms. After inserting a nanofiber amid a cloud of cold atoms, we observed the phenomenon of slow light under the conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency: the light guided by the fiber is slowed down to a speed 3000 times smaller than its usual speed. We also stored the light guided by an optical fiber. After several microseconds, the information stored as a collective atomic excitation could be retrieved in the fiber. We have shown that this optical memory works for light pulses containing less than one photon on average. This system may therefore be used as a quantum memory, an essential tool for future quantum communication networks. Finally, we trapped atoms in an array in the vicinity of the nanofiber thanks to the light guided by the latter. Compared to our first set of experiments, the resulting cloud has a longer lifetime (25 ms) and interacts more strongly with the guided light (OD ~ 100). This new system should allow to efficiently implement other quantum optics protocols, such as the generation of single photons, or the entanglement of two remote atomic ensembles.
Tapered optical fiber with subwavelength diameter waist, an optical nanofiber, provides a unique and versatile platform for manipulating atoms and photons. In the guided modes of the nanofibers, the optical field can be tightly confined in the transverse direction while enabling strong interaction with the surrounding medium in the evanescent region. Combining laser-cooled atoms with nanofibers has enabled surprising quantum optics experiments, e.g. the efficient channeling of emission from single atoms into the fiber-guided modes, spectroscopy of near-surface atoms, high optical depth with an array of atoms optically trapped around the nanofiber, atomic memories and Bragg reflectors for fiber-guided photons, chiral light-matter interaction etc. In addition, using moderate longitudinal confinement in nanofiber cavities has enabled strong coupling between a single atom and fiber-guided photons. In this article, I review some of the key experimental demonstrations on the “atom＋nanofiber” platform.
We have recently demonstrated a new experimental platform for trapping and optically interfacing laser-cooled cesium atoms. The scheme uses a two-color evanescent field surrounding an optical nanofiber to localize the atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice 200 nm above the nanofiber surface [1]. In order to use this fiber-coupled ensemble of trapped atoms for applications in the context of quantum communication and quantum information processing, non-classical states of the atomic spins have to be prepared and should live long enough to allow one to apply successive quantum gates. The close proximity of the trapped atoms to the nanofiber surface and the strong polarization gradients of nanofiber-guided light fields are potentially important sources of decoherence. Here, we present our latest experimental results on the coherence properties of atomic spins in our nanofiber-based trap. Using a microwave field to drive the clock transition, we determine inhomogeneous and homogeneous dephasing times by Ramsey and spin echo techniques, respectively. Our results constitute the first measurement of the coherence properties of atoms trapped in the vicinity of a nanofiber and represent a fundamental step towards establishing nanofiber-based traps for cold atoms as a building block in a quantum network.
Developing light-matter interfaces is a crucial capability with unique applications to quantum optics and quantum information networks. In this context, our group focuses on the development of quantum memories in cold, neutral atom clouds, using both electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) and DLCZ as interacting schemes [1]. We recently reported for instance the quantum storage of qubits encoded in the orbital angular momentum degree of freedom [2]. Here, we demonstrate [3] for the first time EIT and optical storage at the single-photon level for the light tightly guided by a subwavelength-diameter optical fiber, aka nanofiber. In a nanofiber, the guided photons are highly confined and the majority of the light power travels in the evanescent field outside the glass. This new setting is a promising alternative to free-space focusing, which limits the interaction one can obtain, and provides a novel platform for developing all-fibered quantum networks.