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Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference

Laser Noise Induced Heating in Far Off Resonance Optical Traps

T. A. Savard, Kenneth M. O’Hara, John E. Thomas

Published May 18, 1997• 0 citations
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Abstract

We calculate the heating rates arising from laser intensity noise and beam pointing fluctuations in far off resonance optical traps. Achievement of long heating time constants imposes stringent requirements on the laser noise spectra.

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Laser-noise-induced heating in far-off resonance optical traps

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•Jun 9, 1986•0 citations
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, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 4987 (1999)], 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.
We experimentally and theoretically study the origin of heating in optical lattices by disentangling the respective roles of intensity and phase noise depending on the lattice parameters. While intensity noise is widely identified as a major limiting factor, we show that phase noise can become the dominant heating source, especially for light atoms and deep optical lattices. We provide a simple theoretical framework to predict the phase-noise-induced heating from the power spectral density of the laser phase noise, which can be measured experimentally. We show that such predictions can accurately reproduce the measured heating rates of lithium-6 atoms in a triangular lattice. Our approach is readily generalized to other lattice geometries and atomic species.
A Fokker-Planck equation is derived for the energy distribution of atoms in a three-dimensional harmonic trap with fluctuations in the spring constant and the equilibrium position. Using this model, we predict trap lifetimes based on the measurable noise spectra of the fluctuations. The energy distributions evolve into a single eigenmode where the apparent temperature of the distribution remains constant while the population decays as a consequence of the energy input. The method of analysis and the corresponding results are applicable to any optical, magnetic, or ion trap that is approximately harmonic, and offer useful insights into both noise-induced and optical heating processes.
In our experiment, a single cesium atom prepared in a large-magnetic-gradient magneto-optical trap (MOT) can be efficiently transferred into a 1064-nm far-off-resonance microscopic optical dipole trap (FORT). The efficient transfer of the single atom between the two traps is used to determine the trapping lifetime and the effective temperature of the single atom in FORT. The typical trapping lifetime has been improved from ∼ 6.9 s to ∼ 130 s by decreasing the background pressure from ∼ 1 × 10 −10 Torr to ∼ 2 × 10 −11 Torr and applying one-shot 10-ms laser cooling phase. We also theoretically investigate the dependence of trapping lifetimes of a single atom in a FORT on trap parameters based on the FORT beam’s intensity noise induced heating. Numerical simulations show that the heating depends on the FORT beam’s waist size and the trap depth. The trapping time can be predicted based on effective temperature measurement of a single atom in the FORT and the intensity noise spectra of the FORT beam. These experimental results are found to be in agreement with the predictions of the heating model.