Clustered Wigner crystal phases of cold polar molecules in arrays of one-dimensional tubes

TL;DR

This paper theoretically explores the formation and melting of clustered Wigner crystal phases in cold polar molecules confined in arrays of one-dimensional tubes, revealing new phases and their experimental accessibility.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of clustered Wigner crystals and Luttinger liquids in this system, providing a detailed phase diagram and analysis of quantum melting.

Findings

Identification of stable clustered Wigner crystal phases.

Quantum melting into clustered Luttinger liquids.

Experimental parameters within current reach.

Abstract

We analyze theoretically polar molecules confined in planar arrays of one dimensional tubes. In the classical limit, if the number of tubes is finite, new types of "clustered Wigner crystals" with increasingly many molecules per unit cell can be stabilized by tuning the in-plane angle between the dipolar moments and the tube direction. Quantum mechanically, these phases melt into distinct "clustered Luttinger liquids." We calculate the phase diagram of the system and study the quantum melting of the clustered phases. We find that the requirements for exploring these phases are reachable in current experiments and discuss possible experimental signatures.