Final Report Summary - NANOQUANT (Nanofiber Quantum Networks) NanoQuaNt used subwavelength-diameter optical fibers, so-called optical nanofibers, to trap and to optically interface laser-cooled neutral atoms. We realize the nanofibers as the waist of tapered optical fibers. The overall objective of NanoQuaNt was to establish these nanofiber-based atom-light interfaces as quantum-enabled fiber-optical components for quantum information processing and communication. To this end, we devised, built, and put into operation two optimized experimental setups. With our system, we demonstrated a fiber-coupled quantum memory, a single-photon source, and ultra-strong optical nonlinearities. In connection with these works, we furthermore demonstrated a novel method for cooling the nanofiber-trapped atoms to temperatures close to absolute zero in one spatial dimension. And finally, we explored hitherto uncharted regimes of extreme atom-light coupling. These are excellent starting conditions for interconnecting the above components in order to demonstrate practical fiber-optical quantum network configurations.
