Laser-assisted Stark deceleration of CaF in its rovibronic ground (high-field-seeking) state

A near-resonant, red-detuning laser-assisted Stark deceleration scheme is proposed to slow CaF in its high-field-seeking rovibronic ground state. The assisting Gaussian laser beam can confine CaF molecules transversely owing to the optical Stark effect. Simulations suggest that the present scheme is superior to previous Stark decelerators. Under typical experimental conditions, when the assisting laser frequency is red-detuned to the molecular transition (λ~606.3 nm) by 5.0 GHz and the laser power is about 5.6 W, the proposed decelerator can achieve a total number at the order of 10⁴ CaF molecules with a number density at the order of 10⁸ cm^-3. The equivalent temperature of the obtained cold CaF molecules is 2.3 mK. Additionally, the desired assisting laser power can be as low as about 1.2 W if keeping the red-detuning value to be 1.0 GHz, which further suggests its experimental feasibility.