Figure 3. Properties of the excitation laser field.

(a) Intensity distribution and (b) polarization overlaps, , ξ_π and , of the excitation laser field in the vicinity of the nanofibre. The incoming field is modelled as a left-handed circularly polarized free-space plane wave that propagates in the +y-direction. The intensity in a is normalized to the incident intensity. The fibre radius is a=250 nm, the wavelength is λ=852 nm, and the local quantization axis is chosen along e_ϕ. The two alternative positions of the atoms are indicated by small crosses. From b, it is apparent that the excitation laser field is almost perfectly σ⁻- and σ⁺-polarized at the atomic positions, (r≈480 nm, ϕ=0) and (r≈480 nm, ϕ=π), respectively.