Nayak, K. P. et al. Optical nanofiber as an efficient tool for manipulating and probing atomic fluorescence. Opt. Express 15, 5431-5438

We experimentally demonstrate efficient coupling of atomic fluorescence to the guided mode of a subwavelength-diameter silica fiber, an optical nanofiber. We show that fluorescence of a very small number of atoms, around the nanofiber can be readily observed through a single-mode optical fiber. We also show that such a technique enables us to probe the van der Waals interaction between atoms and surface with high precision by observing the fluorescence excitation spectrum through the nanofiber. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.