Optical Nanofibers for Multiphoton Processes and Selective Mode Interactions with Rubidium

Optical nanofibers (ONFs) interfaced with atoms have found numerous applications for the development of quantum technologies. They feature a strong evanescent held at their waist, thereby providing an intense and tightly focused beam over long distances. Thiscan be used to achieve strong interactions between light and matter, enabling trapping, probing, and control of atoms along the waist. However, little experimental work has been done with the higher-order fiber guided modes (HOM). These feature inhomogeneous polarization distributions around the waist and some carry more than h of angular momentum (AM). Owing to the intense held gradient in their evanescent held, ONFs make excellent platforms to excite quadrupole-allowed transitions which could be used to store high-density information encoded on the AM of guided light. We predicted a transition probability up to 6 times stronger than for free-space beams using the fundamental mode and up to 4 times stronger using linearly polarized HOMs. We also studied a singlecolor, two-photon transition at 993 nm between the 5SI/2 and 6S1/2 atomic levels in a hot rubidium vapor and showed its suitability as a frequency reference. We experimentally verihed the particular selection rules for this transition and showed that they may be used to characterize the polarization at the waist of an ONF embedded in a cloud of atoms formed by a magneto-optical trap. Finally, we developed a method to generate HOM-likebeams in free-space, inject them into an ONF, and decompose the modal excitation at the output via transfer matrix calculation. This approach combined with absorption of guided-light by cold atoms may be used to infer the mode excitation at the waist and allow us to selectively excite HOMs.Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate Universit

Enhancement of the quadrupole interaction of an atom with guided light of an ultrathin optical fiber

We investigate the electric quadrupole interaction of an alkali-metal atom with guided light in the fundamental and higher-order modes of a vacuum-clad ultrathin optical fiber. We calculate the quadrupole Rabi frequency, the quadrupole oscillator strength, and their enhancement factors. In the example of a rubidium-87 atom, we study the dependencies of the quadrupole Rabi frequency on the quantum numbers of the transition, the mode type, the phase circulation direction, the propagation direction, the orientation of the quantization axis, the position of the atom, and the fiber radius. We find that the root-mean-square (rms) quadrupole Rabi frequency reduces quickly but the quadrupole oscillator strength varies slowly with increasing radial distance. We show that the enhancement factors of the rms Rabi frequency and the oscillator strength do not depend on any characteristics of the internal atomic states except for the atomic transition frequency. The enhancement factor of the oscillator strength can be significant even when the atom is far away from the fiber. We show that, in the case where the atom is positioned on the fiber surface, the oscillator strength for the quasicircularly polarized fundamental mode HE$_{11}$ has a local minimum at the fiber radius $a\simeq 107$ nm, and is larger than that for quasicircularly polarized higher-order hybrid modes, TE modes, and TM modes in the region $a<498.2$ nm

A simple, narrow, and robust atomic frequency reference at 993 nm exploiting the rubidium (Rb) 5S1/25\mathit{S}_{1/2} to 6S1/26\mathit{S}_{1/2} transition using one-color two-photon excitation

We experimentally demonstrate a one-color two-photon transition from the $5\mathit{S}_{1/2}$ ground state to the $6\mathit{S}_{1/2}$ excited state in rubidium (Rb) vapor using a continuous wave laser at 993 nm. The Rb vapor contains both isotopes ($^{85}$Rb and $^{87}$Rb) in their natural abundances. The electric dipole allowed transitions are characterized by varying the power and polarization of the excitation laser. Since the optical setup is relatively simple, and the energies of the allowed levels are impervious to stray magnetic fields, this is an attractive choice for a frequency reference at 993 nm, with possible applications in precision measurements and quantum information processing.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, research articl

Spin selection rule for {\it S} level transitions in atomic rubidium under paraxial and nonparaxial two-photon excitation

We report on an experimental test of the spin selection rule for two-photon transitions in atoms. In particular, we demonstrate that the $5S_{1/2}\to 6S_{1/2}$ transition rate in a rubidium gas follows a quadratic dependency on the helicity parameter linked to the polarization of the excitation light. For excitation via a single Gaussian beam or two counterpropagating beams in a hot vapor cell, the transition rate scales as the squared degree of linear polarization. The rate reaches zero when the light is circularly polarized. In contrast, when the excitation is realized via an evanescent field near an optical nanofiber, the two-photon transition cannot be completely extinguished (theoretically, not lower than 13\% of the maximum rate, under our experimental conditions) by only varying the polarization of the fiber-guided light. Our findings lead to a deeper understanding of the physics of multiphoton processes in atoms in strongly nonparaxial light

Observation of the 87Rb 5S1/2 to 4D3/2 electric quadrupole transition at 516.6 nm mediated via an optical nanofibre

Light guided by an optical nanofibre has a very steep evanescent field gradient extending from the fibre surface. This gradient can be exploited to drive electric quadrupole transitions in nearby quantum emitters. In this paper, we report on the observation of the 5S 1/2 →4D 3/2 electric quadrupole transition at 516.6 nm (in vacuum) in laser-cooled 87Rb atoms using only a few μW of laser power propagating through an optical nanofibre embedded in the atom cloud. This work extends the rangeof applications for optical nanofibres in atomic physics to include more fundamental tests such as high-precision measurements of parity non-conservation

Transformations agricoles et agroalimentaires

À l’heure des robots et du numérique, la terre (habitat, agriculture, paysage, planète) et la nourriture (du corps et de l’âme) sont parmi les préoccupations majeures dans les espaces médiatiques et politiques. Le pétrole et l’abondance qui l’a accompagné nous avaient fait oublier qu’elles sont au fondement des sociétés humaines. La « crise alimentaire » de 2008, qui a secoué plusieurs continents, a rappelé aux gouvernements l’enjeu de la sécurité alimentaire. Après des décennies d’excédents, de baisse du prix des produits agricoles de base, la question de la valeur de la terre et de l’agriculture est de retour. La question de la santé et celle des droits humains prennent une place élargie tant dans les politiques publiques et dans la production de normes alimentaires. Des mouvements sociaux transnationaux s’emparent de la question de l’avenir de l’agriculture et de l’alimentation, et de celle de la « bonne vie ». Pour contribuer à cette réflexion sur l’avenir de la terre et de la nourriture, cet ouvrage étudie la socialisation de l’agriculture, c’est-à-dire sa prise en charge tant par les politiques agricoles (essentiellement nationales) que par l’organisation des marchés dans un cadre national et international. Il le fait en prenant un large recul et mobilise trois temporalités. La première est celle de la planète. La seconde, celle des régimes métaboliques, façons dont l’humanité à différents stades de développement, mobilise matériaux et énergie. La troisième est celle du capitalisme, avec la succession de systèmes hégémoniques (ce qui n’exclue pas de multiples polarités). Cet ouvrage réunit des recherches récentes d’économistes, de sociologues, d’historiens et d’agronomes, de différents pays, recherches qui ont en commun de concerner la place de l’agriculture dans l’évolution des capitalismes

Les régulations mésoéconomiques : saisir la variété des espaces de régulation

International audienceThe paper is derived from the necessity of acknowledging the structuring nature of the process of economic and social differentiations that generates heterogeneous areas endowed with specific logics. These include issues related to the tensions arising from the accumulation of capital, which is felt particularly acutely in the wage-labor nexus. Monocausal explanations shall be ruled out for considering both the historical character of complex economic and social systems, and the peculiarities of labor processes and of social productions. We will demonstrate that the Régulation approaches refer to attitudes and methods that are deep-rooted in a meso-level, even if that has never been formulated in such terms. This kicks off a work program which aims to account how such areas differentiate and how they develop a wide range of institutional arrangements that involve players who defend their own interests. This results in meso-level areas for which the macroeconomic functionality is not decisive (hence the concept of half-functionality). This provides multiple regulations that are sectorial and territorial, or even professional, and who do not yet constitute a regime of accumulation as such. The " sectors " of people care, of education or of telecommunications will be used as cases for experimenting the heuristic character of this approach

Trois questions à la théorie de la régulation par ceux qui ne l’ont pas fondée

International audienc

Les régulations mésoéconomiques : saisir la variété des espaces de régulation

International audienceThe paper is derived from the necessity of acknowledging the structuring nature of the process of economic and social differentiations that generates heterogeneous areas endowed with specific logics. These include issues related to the tensions arising from the accumulation of capital, which is felt particularly acutely in the wage-labor nexus. Monocausal explanations shall be ruled out for considering both the historical character of complex economic and social systems, and the peculiarities of labor processes and of social productions. We will demonstrate that the Régulation approaches refer to attitudes and methods that are deep-rooted in a meso-level, even if that has never been formulated in such terms. This kicks off a work program which aims to account how such areas differentiate and how they develop a wide range of institutional arrangements that involve players who defend their own interests. This results in meso-level areas for which the macroeconomic functionality is not decisive (hence the concept of half-functionality). This provides multiple regulations that are sectorial and territorial, or even professional, and who do not yet constitute a regime of accumulation as such. The " sectors " of people care, of education or of telecommunications will be used as cases for experimenting the heuristic character of this approach