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arXiv:2001.11792 · Physical Review A

Quantum many-body physics with ultracold polar molecules: Nanostructured potential barriers and interactions

Andreas Kruckenhauser, Lukas M. Sieberer, Luigi De Marco, Jun-Ru Li, Kyle Matsuda, William G. Tobias, Giacomo Valtolina, Jun Ye, Ana María Rey, Mikhail A. Baranov, P. Zoller

Published Aug 19, 2020• 22 citations

Abstract

We design dipolar quantum many-body Hamiltonians that will facilitate the realization of exotic quantum phases under current experimental conditions achieved for polar molecules. The main idea is to modulate both single-body potential barriers and two-body dipolar interactions on a spatial scale of tens of nanometers to strongly enhance energy scales and, therefore, relax temperature requirements for observing new quantum phases of engineered many-body systems. We consider and compare two approaches. In the first, nanoscale barriers are generated with standing-wave optical light fields exploiting optical nonlinearities. In the second, static electric-field gradients in combination with microwave dressing are used to write nanostructured spatial patterns on the induced electric dipole moments, and thus dipolar interactions. We study the formation of interlayer and interface bound states of molecules in these configurations, and provide detailed estimates for binding energies and expected losses for present experimental setups.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.102.023320

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Ultracold polar molecules present a rich platform for experimental quantum science leveraging their unique properties. Of particular relevance is the intrinsic electric dipole moment of the molecule, which results in strong coupling to microwave fields and can be used to engineer long-range, anisotropic, and tunable dipole-dipole interactions. Such interactions can generate entanglement between molecules and enable the study of novel quantum many-body phenomena in parameter regimes inaccessible in other systems. Modern experiments in optical tweezers and optical lattices have demonstrated controlled interactions between molecules in coherent quantum states, and recently bulk gases of molecules have been cooled to quantum degeneracy. Motivated by these landmark advances, we present this article to explain many of the key concepts relevant to current research in the field.

Abstract Quantum gases of ultracold polar molecules have novel properties because of the strong dipolar forces between molecules. Current experiments shield the molecules from destructive collisions by engineering long-range repulsive interactions using microwave or static electric fields. These shielding methods produce interaction potentials with large repulsive cores that are not well described with contact potentials. In this paper we explore the anisotropic interaction potentials that arise for pairs of polar molecules shielded with static electric fields. We derive computationally inexpensive approximations for the potentials that are suitable for use in calculations of many-body properties. The interaction potentials for molecules shielded with static fields are substantially different from those that arise from microwave shielding and will produce quite different many-body physics.