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.

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We suggest using a two-color evanescent light field around a subwavelength-diameter fiber to trap and guide atoms. The optical fiber carries a red-detuned light and a blue-detuned light, with both modes far from resonance. When both input light fields are circularly polarized, a set of trapping minima of the total potential in the transverse plane is formed as a ring around the fiber. This design allows confinement of atoms to a cylindrical shell around the fiber. When one or both of the input light fields are linearly polarized, the total potential has two local minimum points in the transverse plane. This design allows confinement of atoms to two straight lines parallel to the fiber axis. Due to the thin thickness of the fiber, we can use far-off-resonance fields with substantially differing evanescent decay lengths to produce a net potential with a large depth, a large coherence time, and a large trap lifetime. For example, a 0.2-µm-radius silica fiber carrying 30 mW of 1.06-µm-wavelength light and 29 mW of 700-nm-wavelength light, both fields are circularly polarized at the input, gives for cesium atoms a trap depth of 2.9 mK, a coherence time of 32 ms, and a recoil-heating-limited trap lifetime of 541 s.

We study the properties of the field in the fundamental mode HE 11 of a vacuumclad subwavelength-diameter optical fiber using the exact solutions of Maxwell's equations. We obtain simple analytical expressions for the total intensity of the electric field. We discuss the origin of the deviations of the exact fundamental mode HE 11 from the approximate mode LP 01 . We show that the thin thickness of the fiber and the high contrast between the refractive indices of the silica core and the vacuum clad substantially modify the intensity distributions and the polarization properties of the field and its components, especially in the vicinity of the fiber surface. One of the promising applications of the field around the subwavelength-diameter fiber is trapping and guiding of atoms by the optical force of the evanescent field.