Toward near-field optical manipulation of atoms using a nanometric fiber probe

Summary form only given. The conventional atom-manipulation techniques with propagating light are limited in spatial accuracy by diffraction effects of light waves. In order to overcome the diffraction limit and increase the manipulation accuracy, we can use the optical near field localized in a nanometer region. Such an optical near field is produced by a fiber probe with a nanometric aperture. We consider manipulating atoms by means of the dipole force from the localized optical near field. In this paper we report on the experimental progress toward the realization of atom manipulation with the nanometric fiber probe.