Efficient stimulated slowing and cooling of the magnesium fluoride molecular beam

We theoretically investigate the possibility of stimulated light force deceleration and cooling of the diatomic magnesium fluoride molecular beam with near-cycling transitions in the bichromatic standing light wave of high intensity. The weighted degeneracy and force reduction factor are considered due to the behavior of the optical bichromatic force (BCF) in near-cycling transitions with internal degeneracies, and the two-level optical Bloch equations can estimate the actual behavior of the BCF. Our simulation shows that the stimulated force exceeding the spontaneous force by a factor of 2.8 can slow down the molecular beam to several m s⁻¹ within centimeter-scale distance, and this slowing mechanism can eliminate the need of compensation of Doppler shift during the longitudinal deceleration of the molecular beam. (paper)