Lattice of nanotraps and line narrowing in Raman gas

Decreasing the emission linewidth from a molecule is one of the key aims in precision spectroscopy. One approach is based on cooling molecules to near absolute zero. An alternative way is to localize the molecules on subwavelength scale. A novel approach in this direction uses a standing wave in a gas-filled hollow fibre. It creates an array of deep, nanometer-scale traps for Raman-active molecules, resulting in linewidth narrowing by a factor of 10 000.