Laser cooling is theoretically investigated in a cascade three-level scheme, where the excited state of a laser-driven transition is coupled by a second laser to a top, more stable level, as for alkaline-earth-metal atoms. The second laser action modifies the atomic scattering cross section and produces temperatures lower than those reached by Doppler cooling on the lower transition. When multiphoton processes due to the second laser are relevant, an electromagnetic-induced transparency modifies the absorption of the first laser, and the final temperature is controlled by the second laser parameters. When the intermediate state is only virtually excited, the dynamics is dominated by the two-photon process and the final temperature is determined by the spontaneous decay rate of the top state.
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