Related papers: Atomic-scale confinement of optical fields
We present experimental techniques and results related to the optimization and characterization of our nanofiber-based atom trap [Vetsch et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 203603 (2010)]. The atoms are confined in an optical lattice which is…
Laser science has tackled physical limitations to achieve higher power, faster and smaller light sources. The quest for ultra-compact laser that can directly generate coherent optical fields at the nano-scale, far beyond the diffraction…
Quantum control of atoms at ultrashort distances from surfaces would open a new paradigm in quantum optics and offer a novel tool for the investigation of near-surface physics. Here, we investigate the motional states of atoms that are…
Atoms coupled to optical fields confined in one and two spatial dimensions in solid state microstructures can experience very large light shifts if the driving frequencies are close to a resonance of the microstructures and an atomic…
Laser-cooled atoms coupled to nanophotonic structures constitute a powerful research platform for the exploration of new regimes of light-matter interaction. While the initialization of the atomic internal degrees of freedom in these…
We study the discrimination of weak coherent states of light with significant overlaps by nondestructive measurements on the light states through measuring atomic states that are entangled to the coherent states via dipole coupling. In this…
Realizing strong light-matter interactions between individual 2-level systems and resonating cavities in atomic and solid state systems opens up possibilities to study optical nonlinearities on a single photon level, which can be useful for…
This is an investigation on the dynamical screening of an atom confined within a fullerene of finite width. The two surfaces of the fullerene lead to the presence of two surface plasmon eigenmodes. It is shown that, in the vicinity of these…
The ability to confine light into tiny spatial dimensions is important for applications such as microscopy, sensing and nanoscale lasers. While plasmons offer an appealing avenue to confine light, Landau damping in metals imposes a…
We realize a scanning probe microscope using single trapped $^{87}$Rb atoms to measure optical fields with subwavelength spatial resolution. Our microscope operates by detecting fluorescence from a single atom driven by near-resonant light…
We introduce a point-like scanning single-photon source that operates at room temperature and offers an exceptional photostability (no blinking, no bleaching). This is obtained by grafting in a controlled way a diamond nanocrystal (size…
Plasmonic dimer antennas create strong field enhancement by squeezing light into a nanoscale gap. These optical hotspots are highly attractive for boosting nonlinear processes, such as harmonic generation, photoelectron emission, and…
We demonstrate that it is possible to confine electromagnetic radiation in cavities that are significantly smaller than the wavelength of the radiation it encapsulates. To this aim, we use the techniques of transformation optics. First, we…
Scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) allows for the observation of the optical response of material surfaces with a resolution far below the diffraction limit. Based on amplitude-modulation atomic force microscopy…
Cutting-edge research in the band engineering of nanowires at the ultimate fine scale is related to the minimum scale of a nanowire-based device. The fundamental issue at the subnanometre scale is whether angle-resolved photoemission…
We propose an optical dipole trap for cold neutral atoms based on the electric field produced from the evanescent fields in a hollow rectangular slot cut through an optical nanofibre. In particular, we discuss the trap performance in…
The study of metallic nanoparticles has a long tradition in linear and nonlinear optics [1], with current emphasis on the ultrafast dynamics, size, shape and collective effects in their optical response [2-6]. Nanoparticles also represent…
Entanglement and quantum correlations are central to the physics of quantum materials, yet they have remained notoriously difficult to probe experimentally. Probing these phenomena in solids requires quantum optical probes that operate at…
Imaging of the optical properties of individual nanosystems beyond fluorescence can provide a wealth of information. However, the minute signals for absorption and dispersion are challenging to observe, and only specialized techniques…
Macroscopic arrays of cold atoms trapped in optical cavities can reach the strong atom-light collective coupling regime thanks to the simultaneous interactions of the cavity mode with the atomic ensemble. In a recent work we reported a…