Application of a very long cavity laser to atom slowing down and optical pumping

A method to slow down an atomic beam with a counter-propagating resonant laser beam is proposed. The laser radiates across the full Doppler profile of the atomic beam with a longitudinal mode separation which is slightly less than the homogeneous linewidth of the atoms. This allows the atoms to come to rest without the need for frequency tuning or laser chirping. The required mode separation can be obtained from a very long-cavity laser. The application to optical pumping will be also discussed.