arXiv:1203.0010 · Physical Review Letters
Nonadiabatic Preparation of Spin Crystals with Ultracold Polar Molecules
Mikhail Lemeshko, Roman V. Krems, Hendrik Weimer
Abstract
We study the growth dynamics of ordered structures of strongly interacting polar molecules in optical lattices. Using a dipole blockade of microwave excitations, we map the system onto an interacting spin-1/2 model possessing ground states with crystalline order, and describe a way to prepare these states by nonadiabatically driving the transitions between molecular rotational levels. The proposed technique bypasses the need to cross a phase transition and allows for the creation of ordered domains of considerably larger size compared to approaches relying on adiabatic preparation.