Deceleration of molecules in a supersonic beam by the optical field in a low-finesse cavity

We study the dynamics of a supersonic molecular beam in a low-finesse optical cavity and demonstrate that most molecules in the beam can be decelerated to zero central velocity by the intracavity optical field in a process analogous to electrostatic Stark deceleration. We show that the rapid switching of the optical field for slowing the molecules is automatically generated by the cavity-induced dynamics. We further show that ~1% of the molecules can be optically trapped at a few millikelvin in the same cavity. © 2010 The American Physical Society.