Continuous generation of Rubidium vapor in hollow-core photonic band-gap fibers

摘要

We demonstrate high optical depths (50+/-5), lasting for hours inRubidium-filled hollow-core photonic band-gap fibers, which represents a 1000Ximprovement over operation times previously reported. We investigate the vaporgeneration mechanism using both a continuous-wave and a pulsed light source andfind that the mechanism for generating the Rubidium atoms is primarily due tothermal vaporization. Continuous generation of large vapor densities shouldenable measurements at the single-photon level by averaging over longer timescales.