Efficient all-optical switching using slow light within a hollow fiber.
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.
Bajcsy
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M
Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Hofferberth
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S
Balic
V
V
Peyronel
T
T
Hafezi
M
M
Zibrov
A S
AS
Vuletic
V
V
Lukin
M D
MD