Cavity cooling of internal molecular motion.
We predict that it is possible to cool rotational, vibrational, and translational degrees of freedom of molecules by coupling a molecular dipole transition to an optical cavity. The dynamics is numerically simulated for a realistic set of experimental parameters using OH molecules. The results show that the translational motion is cooled to a few muK and the internal state is prepared in one of the two ground states of the two decoupled rotational ladders in a few seconds. Shorter cooling times are expected for molecules with larger polarizability.
Morigi
Giovanna
G
Departament de Fisica, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Bellaterra, Spain.
Pinkse
Pepijn W H
PW
Kowalewski
Markus
M
de Vivie-Riedle
Regina
R