Laser cooling of CaBr molecules and production of ultracold Br atoms: A theoretical study including spin–orbit coupling

Owing to the exciting potential applications of ultracold atoms and molecules in many fields, developing new cooling schemes has attracted great interests in recent years. Here, we investigate laser cooling of CaBr molecules and design a photonic scheme for the production of ultracold Br atoms using the highly accurate ab initio and dynamical methods. We find that the AΠ1/22(ν′=0)→X2Σ1/2+(ν=0) transition for CaBr features a large vibrational branching ratio, a significant photon-scattering rate, and no intermediate electronic-state interference, indicating that the ultracold CaBr could be produced through a three-laser cooling scheme. Moreover, an efficient four-pulse excitation scheme from the ground rovibrational level of the cooled CaBr molecules is proposed to yield ultracold Br atoms, in which a few spin–orbit excited states are utilized as the intermediate states. The importance of the spin–orbit coupling is underscored in this work.