Hollow fibre guides for metastable helium atoms

The realisation of an atomic waveguide will be an important component for t he development of future atom optic devices such as large angle atom interf erometers. Hollow optical fibres that employ repulsive (blue detuned) evane scent light fields to guide the atoms are one approach to this technology. We report here on multimode guiding of metastable helium (2(3) S-1) atoms t hrough hollow optical fibres that support multimode light fields. In order to produce efficient single-mode atom guiding, hollow fibres supporting sin gle light mode propagation will be required to generate uniform evanescent light fields inside fibre wall. We have recently developed such a fibre and report on the suitability of its light transmission characteristics for at om waveguiding. (C) 2001 Academie des sciences/Editions scientifiques et me dicales Elsevier SAS.