  The development of optical nanofibers (ONF) and the study and control of
their optical properties when coupling atoms to their electromagnetic modes has
opened new possibilities for their use in quantum optics and quantum
information science. These ONFs offer tight optical mode confinement (less than
the wavelength of light) and diffraction-free propagation. The small cross
section of the transverse field allows probing of linear and non-linear
spectroscopic features of atoms with exquisitely low power. The cooperativity
-- the figure of merit in many quantum optics and quantum information systems
-- tends to be large even for a single atom in the mode of an ONF, as it is
proportional to the ratio of the atomic cross section to the electromagnetic
mode cross section. ONFs offer a natural bus for information and for
inter-atomic coupling through the tightly-confined modes, which opens the
possibility of one-dimensional many-body physics and interesting quantum
interconnection applications. The presence of the ONF modifies the vacuum
field, affecting the spontaneous emission rates of atoms in its vicinity. The
high gradients in the radial intensity naturally provide the potential for
trapping atoms around the ONF, allowing the creation of one-dimensional arrays
of atoms. The same radial gradient in the transverse direction of the field is
responsible for the existence of a large longitudinal component that introduces
the possibility of spin-orbit coupling of the light and the atom, enabling the
exploration of chiral quantum optics.
