Cavity cooling of internal molecular motion

Abstract

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 few $\mu$K and the internal state is prepared in one of the two ground states of the two decoupled rotational ladders in few seconds. Shorter cooling times are expected for molecules with larger polarizability.