Transmission characteristics of optical nanofibers in metastable xenon.

We study the transmission characteristics of subwavelength diameter silica optical nanofibers (ONFs) surrounded with xenon plasma produced by low-pressure inductive RF discharge. In contrast with related experiments using rubidium vapor, we find essentially no degradation of optical transmission through the ONFs as a function of time. We also observe a pronounced ONF transmission modulation effect that depends on the conditions of the xenon plasma.