Light Confinement by a Cylindric Metallic Waveguide in Dense Buffer Gas Environment

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the use of metallic microtubes within a high-pressure buffer gas environment to enhance atom-light interactions, opening new avenues for nonlinear optics and polariton studies.

Contribution

It introduces metallic microtubes in dense buffer gas environments, enabling extended atom-light interaction lengths at high pressure, which was not previously achieved.

Findings

Enhanced atom-light interaction over 1 mm in high-pressure gas.

Pressure broadening interpolates atomic and solid-state spectra.

Potential for nonlinear optics and polariton condensation experiments.

Abstract

We report on the implementation of metallic microtubes in a system of rubidium vapour at 230\,bar of argon buffer gas. The high buffer gas pressure leads to a widely pressure broadened linewidth of several nanometers, interpolating between the sharp atomic physics spectra and the band structure of solid state systems. Tube-like metallic waveguide structures have been inserted in the high pressure buffer gas system, allowing for an enhancement of the atom-light interaction over an optical guiding length in the tube of up to 1\,mm. The system holds promise for nonlinear optics experiments and the study of atom-light polariton condensation.