Ab initio based calculations of cavity cooling including the ro-vibrational modes of the OH radical

We present a theoretical approach for the simulation of the cooling of internal and external molecular degrees of freedom in a cavity. The idea is to sequentially depopulate excited ro-vibrational levels by vacuum-stimulated Raman scattering into the mode of a high-finesse cavity. As a model system we choose the OH radical. By using a combination of ab initio quantum chemical and experimental data we are able to determine the internal energy level structure and the transition frequencies and strengths needed for our cooling scheme. We take into account the perturbing spontaneous and the coherent Raman processes amplified by the cavity to get a realistic model. This gives us insight in the cooling process and lets us predict the time scales needed to prepare a molecule in its ground state.