Guiding laser-cooled atoms in hollow-core fibers - art. no. 033411

Laser-cooled atoms from a low-velocity atomic source are guided in a hollow -core optical fiber using the evanescent-wave dipole force from blue-detune d laser Light launched into the glass region of the fiber. The transverse v elocity of the guided atoms corresponds to a temperature of 50 mu K. We ach ieve a maximum nux through a 23.5-cm-long fiber of 590000 atoms/second with a laser power of 55 mWatts at a detuning of 6 GHz. With larger detunings o f 40 GHz,. spontaneous emission from the atoms inside the fiber can be supp ressed and the atom's internal-state population is preserved. We identify t wo major loss mechanisms for the guiding process and discuss possible solut ions.