We experimentally demonstrate efficient coupling of atomic fluorescence to the guided mode of a subwavelength-diameter silica fiber, an optical nanofiber. We show that fluorescence of a very small number of atoms, around the nanofiber can be readily observed through a single-mode optical fiber. We also show that such a technique enables us to probe the van der Waals interaction between atoms and surface with high precision by observing the fluorescence excitation spectrum through the nanofiber.

We experimentally demonstrate the efficient channeling of fluorescence photons from single q dots on optical nanofiber into the guided modes by measuring the photon-count rates through the guided and radiation modes simultaneously. We obtain the maximum channeling efficiency to be 22.0(±4.8)% at a fiber diameter of 350 nm for the emission wavelength of 780 nm. The results may open new possibilities in quantum information technologies for generating single photons into single-mode optical fibers.

We suggest using an evanescent wave around a thin fiber to trap atoms. We show that the gradient force of a red-detuned evanescent-wave field in the fundamental mode of a silica fiber can balance the centrifugal force when the fiber diameter is about two times smaller than the wavelength of the light and the component of the angular momentum of the atoms along the fiber axis is in an appropriate range. As an example, the system should be realizable for Cesium atoms at a temperature of less than 0.29 mK using a silica fiber with a radius of 0.2 µm and a 1.3-µm-wavelength light with a power of about 27 mW.

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