Electro-association of ultracold dipolar molecules into tetramer field-linked states

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to assemble ultracold tetramer molecules by using electric fields to create and manipulate field-linked states of dipolar molecules, enabling new pathways for ultracold polyatomic molecule construction.

Contribution

It introduces a novel electric-field ramping technique to form weakly-bound tetramers from dipolar molecules, extending the concept of magneto-association to electric fields.

Findings

Theoretical proposal for electric-field induced tetramer formation.

Potential for controlled assembly of ultracold polyatomic molecules.

Connection to observed field-linked states in scattering experiments.

Abstract

The presence of electric or microwave fields can modify the long-range forces between ultracold dipolar molecules in such a way as to engineer weakly-bound states of molecule pairs. These so-called field-linked states [Avdeenkov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 043006 (2003), Lassabli\`ere et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 163402 (2018)], in which the separation between the two bound molecules can be orders of magnitude larger than the molecules themselves, have been observed as resonances in scattering experiments [Chen et al., Nature 614, 59 (2023)]. Here, we propose to use them as tools for the assembly of weakly-bound tetramer molecules, by means of ramping an electric field, the electric-field analog of magneto-association in atoms. This ability would present new possibilities for constructing ultracold polyatomic molecules.