title: Efficient all-optical switching using slow light within a hollow fiber.
abstract: We demonstrate a fiber-optical switch that is activated at tiny energies corresponding to a few hundred optical photons per pulse. This is achieved by simultaneously confining both photons and a small laser-cooled ensemble of atoms inside the microscopic hollow core of a single-mode photonic-crystal fiber and using quantum optical techniques for generating slow light propagation and large nonlinear interaction between light beams.
authors.affiliation: Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bajcsy
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hofferberth
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Balic
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Peyronel
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hafezi
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Zibrov
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vuletic
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Lukin