Interaction between polar molecules subject to a far-off-resonant optical field: Entangled dipoles up- or down-holding each other

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how a far-off-resonant optical field can precisely control the interaction between polar molecules, enabling the creation of entangled states and new phases in ultracold gases through tunable, long-range dipole interactions.

Contribution

It introduces an analytic model for optical-field-dressed dipole interactions, allowing tunable control over molecular interactions via optical parameters.

Findings

Interaction potential becomes tunable by optical field parameters.

Crossover from inverse-power to oscillating behavior in interaction.

Potential for creating entangled ultracold polar gases.

Abstract

We show that the electric dipole-dipole interaction between a pair of polar molecules undergoes an all-out transformation when superimposed by a far-off resonant optical field. The combined interaction potential becomes tunable by variation of wavelength, polarization and intensity of the optical field and its dependence on the intermolecular separation exhibits a crossover from an inverse-power to an oscillating behavior. The ability thereby offered to control molecular interactions opens up avenues toward the creation and manipulation of novel phases of ultracold polar gases among whose characteristics is a long-range entanglement of the dipoles' mutual orientation. We devised an accurate analytic model of such optical-field-dressed dipole-dipole interaction potentials, which enables a straightforward access to the optical-field parameters required for the design of intermolecular interactions in the laboratory.