Optical guiding of atoms through a hollow-core photonic band-gap fiber.

We demonstrate the first guiding of atoms through a hollow-core photonic band-gap fiber. Rb atoms from a thermal oven source travel through 6.1 and 4.0 cm long fibers with a guiding potential 1/e(2) radius of 3.0 microm. When the photon scattering rate is small, the observed guiding efficiency is greater than 70%. An unexpected low-speed cutoff is attributed to inefficient optical coupling.