Loading characteristics of a microscopic optical dipole trap

Abstract

We report on an investigation of loading characteristics of deep microscopic dipole traps. The dipole trap is loaded from a low density magneto optical trap (MOT) containing $\approx 5\times 10^{6}$ atoms. We determine the loading parameters that maximize the trapped atom number for a trap of waist 5 {\mu}m with trap depths ranging from 3.5 mK to 10 mK. We determine the optimal trap loading conditions and the loading rates, loss coefficients and temperature of the trapped atoms under these conditions. We show that it is possible to load a few hundred to thousand atoms in dipole traps of depth 3.5 mK to 8.5 mK under the optimal loading conditions.