Spatio-temporal Monte Carlo modeling of loading and decay dynamics in an optical dipole trap

Abstract: Here, we present our studies on intra-trap dynamics of an optical dipole trap (ODT) loaded from a Magneto-optical trap (MOT) of $^{87}$Rb atoms. A spatio-temporal Monte Carlo (MC) simulation approach has been employed in conjunction with the semi-classical theory based calculations for estimation of various intra-trap two-body loss parameters in the ODT. The temporal MC method based on estimated parameters from spatial MC, gives a close estimation of the experimentally observed atom-number evolution in ODT. We also find that, the decay rate of atoms in an ODT is dominated by momentum-transfer elastic collisions in the absence of MOT beams. However, in presence of MOT beams, the radiative escape process is the dominant two-body loss mechanism in the trap, which surpasses the fine-structure changing and hyperfine changing collisional losses by nearly an order of magnitude.