Tailoring the optical properties at the micro- and nanoscale is key to enable new experiments in the field of quantum optics and biophotonics. To this end, I use my strong background in numerical simulations as well as nano- and microfabrication techniques together with the expertise in spectroscopy, linear and nonlinear optics to enable and conduct experiments.
Atom-light interactions in nano-scale systems hold great promise for novel technologies based on integrated emitters and optical modes. We present the design architecture, construction method,<br>and characterization of an all-glass alkali-metal vapor cell with nanometer-scale internal structure. Our cell has a glue-free design which allows versatile optical access, in particular with high numerical aperture optics. By performing spectroscopy in different illumination and detection schemes, we investigate atomic densities and velocity distributions in various nanoscopic landscapes. We apply a two-photon excitation scheme to atoms confined in one dimension within our cells, achieving a resonance line-width of 32 MHz in a counter-propagating geometry, and 57.5 MHz in a co-propagating geometry. Both of these are considerably narrower than the Doppler width (GHz), and are limited<br>by transit time broadening and velocity selection. We also demonstrate sub-Doppler line-widths for atoms confined in two dimensions to micron-sized channels. Furthermore, we illustrate control over vapor density within our cells through nano-scale confinement alone, which could offer a scalable route towards room-temperature devices with single atoms within an interaction volume. Our design offers a robust platform for miniaturized devices that could easily be combined with integrated<br>photonic circuits.
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Partial cloaking of a gold particle by a single molecule
Johannes Zirkelbach,
Benjamin Gmeiner,
Jan Renger,
Pierre Türschmann,
Tobias Utikal,
Stephan Götzinger,
Vahid Sandoghdar
Extinction of light by material particles stems from losses incurred by absorption or scattering. The extinction cross section is usually treated as an additive quantity, leading to the exponential laws that govern the macroscopic attenuation of light. In this work, we demonstrate that the extinction cross section of a large gold nanoparticle can be substantially reduced, i.e., the particle becomes<br>more transparent, if a single molecule is placed in its near field. This partial cloaking eect results from a coherent plasmonic interaction between the molecule and the nanoparticle, whereby each of them acts as a nano-antenna to modify the radiative properties of the other.
