Highly Efficient Coupling of Photons from Nanoemitters into Single-Mode Optical Fibers

Highly efficient coupling of photons from nanoemitters into single-mode optical fibers is demonstrated using tapered fibers. A percentage (7.4 +/- 1.2%) of the total emitted photons from single CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals were coupled into a 300 nm diameter tapered fiber. The dependence of the coupling efficiency on the taper diameter was investigated and the coupling efficiency was found to increase exponentially with decreasing diameter. This method is very promising for nanoparticle sensing and single-photon sources.