Evaluation of heating effects on atoms trapped in an optical trap

Abstract

We solve a stochastic master equation based on the theory of Savard et al. [T.A. Savard, K.M. O'Hara and J.E. Thomas, Phys. Rev. A 56, R1095 (1997)] for heating arising from fluctuations in the trapping laser intensity. We compare with recent experiments of Ye et. al. [J. Ye, D.W. Vernooy and H.J. Kimble, Trapping of single atoms in cavity QED, quant-ph/9908007, Phys. Rev. Lett. (1999 in press)], and find good agreement with the experimental measurements of the distribution of trap occupancy times. The major cause of trap loss arises from the broadening of the energy distribution of the trapped atom, rather than the mean heating rate, which is a very much smaller effect.