Evaluation of heating effects on atoms trapped in an optical trap - art. no. 045801

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. W e compare with recent experiments of Ye et al. [J. Ye, D. W. Vernooy, and H . J. Kimble, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 4987 (1999)], and find good agreement wit h the experimental measurements of the distribution of trap occupancy times . The major cause of trap loss arises from the broadening of the energy dis tribution of the trapped atom, rather than the mean heating rate, which is a very much smaller effect.