Ro-vibrational cooling of diatomic molecules Cd2 and Yb2: rotational energy structure included

Method of ro-vibrational cooling of Cd2 and Yb2 molecules occupying initially their excited rovibrational levels in the ground electronic state is proposed. The method employs the c1u(53P2)-X0+g(51S0) and 0+u(63P1)-X0+g(61S0) electronic transitions in Cd2 and Yb2, respectively. The cooling relies on a successive decrease of population of the ground-state vibrational v"and rotational J" levels using a series of laser-induced excitations from a selected ground-state (v",J") to the excited-state (v'=v"-1,J'=J'-1) ro-vibrational levels, followed by spontaneous deexcitations to the ground state. The proposal is an extension of the vibrational cooling method recently proposed by Urbańczyk et al. [Mol. Phys. 116, 3475–3486 (2018)].