We show that two-photon absorption (TPA) in Rubidium atoms can be greatly
enhanced by the use of a hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber. We investigate
off-resonant, degenerate Doppler-free TPA on the 5S1/2 - 5D5/2 transition and
observe 1% absorption of a pump beam with a total power of only 1 mW in the
fiber. These results are verified by measuring the amount of emitted blue
fluorescence and are consistent with the theoretical predictions which indicate
that transit time effects play an important role in determining the two-photon
absorption cross-section in a confined geometry.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure