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arXiv:1804.09168 · Physical Review A

Two interacting ultracold molecules in a one-dimensional harmonic trap

Anna Dawid, Maciej Lewenstein, Michał Tomza

Published Jun 20, 2018• 19 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Properties of two interacting ultracold polar molecules trapped in a one-dimensional harmonic potential are studied with the quantum rigid-rotor model. The interplay of the molecular rotational structure, anisotropic dipolar interactions, spin-rotation coupling, electric and magnetic fields, and the harmonic trapping potential are examined in detail.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.97.063618

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•Jan 1, 2019•0 citations
Properties of two interacting ultracold polar molecules trapped in a one-dimensional harmonic potential are studied with the quantum rigid-rotor model. The interplay of the molecular rotational structure, anisotropic dipolar interactions, spin-rotation coupling, electric and magnetic fields, and the harmonic trapping potential are examined in detail.
We theoretically investigate the magnetic properties and nonequilibrium dynamics of two interacting ultracold polar and paramagnetic molecules in a one-dimensional harmonic trap in external electric and magnetic fields. The molecules interact via a multichannel two-body contact potential, incorporating the short-range anisotropy of intermolecular interactions. We show that various magnetization states arise from the interplay of the molecular interactions, electronic spins, dipole moments, rotational structures, external fields, and spin-rotation coupling. The rich magnetization diagrams depend primarily on the anisotropy of the intermolecular interaction and the spin-rotation coupling. These specific molecular properties are challenging to calculate or measure. Therefore, we propose the quench dynamics experiments for extracting them from observing the time evolution of the analyzed system. Our results indicate the possibility of controlling the molecular few-body magnetization with the external electric field and pave the way towards studying the magnetization of ultracold molecules trapped in optical tweezers or optical lattices and their application in quantum simulation of molecular multichannel many-body Hamiltonians and quantum information storing.
We theoretically investigate the properties of two interacting ultracold highly magnetic atoms trapped in a one-dimensional harmonic potential. The atoms interact via an anisotropic long-range dipole-dipole interaction, which in one dimension effectively can be modeled by the contact interaction. We investigate the interplay of the external magnetic field, the spin-spin interaction, and the trapping potential and how they affect the magnetization of the system. We show the role of indistinguishability and symmetries in the dynamics by studying the time evolution of the observables that could be measured experimentally. The presented model may depict the on-site interaction of the extended Hubbard models, therefore giving a better understanding of the fundamental building block of the respective many-body quantum simulators.
We examine the potential-energy curves and polarization of the dipole moments of two static polar molecules under the influence of an external dc electric field and their anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction. We model the molecules as quantum rigid rotors to take their rotational degrees of freedom into account and consider a selection of linear, symmetric, and asymmetric top molecules. We provide a comprehensive examination of the energy curves and polarization of the dipoles for varying intermolecular separation and direction of the electric field and find that the properties of the molecules depend strongly on the field's direction at short separations, showing the importance of accounting for molecular rotation. The latter provides insight into the possible effects of accounting for rotational degrees of freedom in molecular dipolar gases. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Abstract Ultracold polar molecules combine a rich structure of long-lived internal states with access to controllable long-range anisotropic dipole–dipole interactions. In particular, the rotational states of polar molecules confined in optical tweezers or optical lattices may be used to encode interacting qubits for quantum computation or pseudo-spins for simulating quantum magnetism. As with all quantum platforms, the engineering of robust coherent superpositions of states is vital. However, for optically trapped molecules, the coherence time between rotational states is typically limited by inhomogeneous differential light shifts. Here we demonstrate a rotationally magic optical trap for 87 Rb 133 Cs molecules that supports a Ramsey coherence time of 0.78(4) s in the absence of dipole–dipole interactions. This is estimated to extend to >1.4 s at the 95% confidence level using a single spin-echo pulse. In our trap, dipolar interactions become the dominant mechanism by which Ramsey contrast is lost for superpositions that generate oscillating dipoles. By changing the states forming the superposition, we tune the effective dipole moment and show that the coherence time is inversely proportional to the strength of the dipolar interaction. Our work unlocks the full potential of the rotational degree of freedom in molecules for quantum computation and quantum simulation.
Abstract This paper reviews recent advances in the study of strongly interacting systems of dipolar molecules. Heteronuclear molecules feature large and tunable electric dipole moments, which give rise to long-range and anisotropic dipole–dipole interactions. Ultracold samples of dipolar molecules with long-range interactions offer a unique platform for quantum simulations and the study of correlated many-body physics. We provide an introduction to the physics of dipolar quantum gases, both electric and magnetic, and summarize the multipronged efforts to bring dipolar molecules into the quantum regime. We discuss in detail the recent experimental progress in realizing and studying strongly interacting systems of polar molecules trapped in optical lattices, with particular emphasis on the study of interacting spin systems and non-equilibrium quantum magnetism. Finally, we conclude with a brief discussion of the future prospects for studies of strongly interacting dipolar molecules.
Ultracold quantum gases are versatile model systems for exploring quantum physics or for the simulation of solid state materials. Meanwhile, they have been created from various atomic species - from alkali metals over alkaline earths to rare earth elements. The latest addition are quantum gases of different kinds of polar molecules. Expectations for quantum gases of heteronuclear molecules are high: Due to their large electric dipole moments, these molecules can interact with each other via long-range interactions - not just via contact interactions as is the case for most atoms. Additionally, they have vibrational and rotational degrees of freedom, with open up new possibilities for quantum simulation. But the same degrees of freedom also pose some challenges. For example, they make the preparation of the quantum gas more difficult, which is typically produced with a combination of laser cooling and evaporative cooling in the atomic case. Molecules mostly lack closed transitions in their spectra, which are required for laser cooling. Therefore, we create our molecular quantum gas from a mixture of two atomic quantum gases. In this work, such an experimental method was developed for fermionic NaK molecules, which is based on the two-photon process Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP). Within STIRAP, the hyperfine structure of the chosen intermediate state plays an important role. Experimentally, and with the help of a theoretical model describing the whole process, we find that we produce the most molecules when we use a large one-photon detuning, if the hyperfine structure of the intermediate state is unresolved. In another project, we explored the rotational level structure of the molecular ground state populated by STIRAP. Rotation is closely linked to the electric dipole moment. The superposition of the ground state with the first excited rotational state, for example, has a transition dipole moment of almost 60% of the permanent electric dipole moment. Unfortunately, coherence times of such superpositions are typically short, as the different polarizabilities of the rotational states lead to dephasing in optical traps. However, using a special polarization angle and a small, dc electric field, we can compensate these differences and realize a spin-decoupled magic trap. With this new technique we obtain record coherence times, at least for small molecular densities. For larger densities we observe first indications for dipolar interactions in a bulk gas of polar molecules, which we also model using the moving-average cluster expansion (MACE).