Coherent Molecular Deceleration via Vibrational Bichromatic Force
Abstract
We propose a scheme for direct laser deceleration of molecules based on a vibrational transition-mediated bichromatic force (VBCF). By precisely engineering mid-infrared optical fields, we establish coherent absorption-stimulated emission cycles while exploiting the long lifetime of vibrational excited states to suppress spontaneous decay and decoherence, rendering the deceleration process effectively non-dissipative. Unlike schemes based on electronic transitions, our approach completely circumvents the restrictive Franck-Condon factors. Using the fundamental vibrational transition of CO as a test case, we achieve a deceleration of ~m/s with negligible population loss over the full interaction time. This VBCF framework provides a general route to cold molecules applicable to any species with an allowed fundamental vibrational transition, opening broad prospects in cold chemistry and quantum metrology.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2605.19626,
title = {Coherent Molecular Deceleration via Vibrational Bichromatic Force},
author = {Meng-Yi Yu and Ya-Nan Lv and Cun-Feng Cheng and Shui-Ming Hu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.19626},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
16 pages, 6 figures, 1 table