Electrostriction in a Bose-Einstein Condensate of Dipolar Molecules

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2608.19180v1
• Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2026 17:54:42 GMT
• Title: Electrostriction in a Bose-Einstein Condensate of Dipolar Molecules
• Abstract summary: We observe electrostriction in a molecular BEC driven by anisotropic dipolar interactions.<n>We find that electrostriction can be torqued by dynamically changing the orientation of the elliptical $$ microwave field.<n>This provides a route to setting molecular quantum gases into rotation, opening opportunities to probe vorticity, superfluidity, and supersolidity in strongly dipolar matter.
• Score: 4.643172141538478
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: The recent creation of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of dipolar molecules has opened a new frontier for many-body quantum systems in which dipolar interactions can drive novel self-organization phenomena. Here, we observe electrostriction in a molecular BEC, an elliptical deformation driven by anisotropic dipolar interactions. We use double microwave dressing, involving $σ$- and $π$-polarized fields, to control non-axially symmetric dipolar interactions. We compare the experimental observations of electrostriction to a model based on an extended Gross-Pitaevskii equation and find excellent agreement in the regime of weak to moderate interactions. Using electrostriction, we demonstrate that the molecular BEC can be torqued by dynamically changing the orientation of the elliptical $σ$ microwave field. This provides a route to setting molecular quantum gases into rotation, opening opportunities to probe vorticity, superfluidity, and supersolidity in strongly dipolar matter.

Related papers

• Tunable state-dependent interactions in collisionally stable mixtures of polar molecules [0.0]
  Double microwave shielding simultaneously shields molecules in both states.<n>The microwave dressing is state-dependent and results in highly tunable, long-range dipolar Ising exchange.<n>In bulk gases, this enables the exploration of itinerant quantum magnetism and quantum droplets.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-07-28T14:33:50Z)
• Equilibrium and non-equilibrium phases of microwave-dressed polar molecules beyond rotational symmetries [0.0]
  Microwave-dressing of polar molecules permits tune both the strength and the angular structure of long-range interactions.<n>We show experimentally observed droplet arrays emerge as a metastable non-equilibrium state.<n>A crystalline phase of molecules, predicted for antidipolar interactions, is absent under conditions of recent experiments.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-06-29T17:32:04Z)
• Bose-Einstein condensate of ultracold sodium-rubidium molecules with tunable dipolar interactions [2.652043006470081]
  We report the production of a Bose-Einstein condensate of ground-state sodium-rubidium molecules via high efficiency evaporative cooling.<n>The ability to tune the dipolar interaction between these ultracold polar molecules is crucial for producing the condensate.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-08-28T07:59:42Z)
• Observation of Self-Bound Droplets of Ultracold Dipolar Molecules [3.9745395624806332]
  We report the formation of self-bound droplets and droplet arrays in an ultracold gas of strongly dipolar sodium-cesium molecules.<n>The droplets exhibit densities up to 100 times higher than the initial BEC, reaching the strongly interacting regime.<n>This work establishes ultracold molecules as a system for the exploration of strongly dipolar quantum matter.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-07-21T03:15:15Z)
• Theory of itinerant collisional spin dynamics in nondegenerate molecular gases [0.0]
  We study the itinerant dynamics of ultracold but nondegenerate polar molecules with a spin-$1/2$ degree of freedom encoded into two of their electric field dressed rotational states.<n>We show that loss can be near completely suppressed in all collision channels via electric field confinement-induced collisional shielding.<n>This work establishes a bridge between the domains of ultracold molecular collisions and many-body spin physics.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-05-28T02:18:22Z)
• Thermal masses and trapped-ion quantum spin models: a self-consistent approach to Yukawa-type interactions in the $λ\!φ^4$ model [44.99833362998488]
  A quantum simulation of magnetism in trapped-ion systems makes use of the crystal vibrations to mediate pairwise interactions between spins. These interactions can be accounted for by a long-wavelength relativistic theory, where the phonons are described by a coarse-grained Klein-Gordon field. We show that thermal effects, which can be controlled by laser cooling, can unveil this flow through the appearance of thermal masses in interacting QFTs.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-05-10T12:59:07Z)
• Observation of Rydberg blockade due to the charge-dipole interaction between an atom and a polar molecule [52.77024349608834]
  We demonstrate Rydberg blockade due to the charge-dipole interaction between a single Rb atom and a single RbCs molecule confined in optical tweezers. Results open up the prospect of a hybrid platform where quantum information is transferred between individually trapped molecules using Rydberg atoms.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-03-10T18:41:20Z)
• Tuning long-range fermion-mediated interactions in cold-atom quantum simulators [68.8204255655161]
  Engineering long-range interactions in cold-atom quantum simulators can lead to exotic quantum many-body behavior. Here, we propose several tuning knobs, accessible in current experimental platforms, that allow to further control the range and shape of the mediated interactions.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2022-03-31T13:32:12Z)
• High-resolution 'magic'-field spectroscopy on trapped polyatomic molecules [62.997667081978825]
  Rapid progress in cooling and trapping of molecules has enabled first experiments on high resolution spectroscopy of trapped diatomic molecules. Extending this work to polyatomic molecules provides unique opportunities due to more complex geometries and additional internal degrees of freedom.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-10-21T15:46:17Z)
• Molecular Interactions Induced by a Static Electric Field in Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Electrodynamics [68.98428372162448]
  We study the interaction between two neutral atoms or molecules subject to a uniform static electric field. Our focus is to understand the interplay between leading contributions to field-induced electrostatics/polarization and dispersion interactions.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-03-30T14:45:30Z)
• Dynamical Strengthening of Covalent and Non-Covalent Molecular Interactions by Nuclear Quantum Effects at Finite Temperature [58.999762016297865]
  Nuclear quantum effects (NQE) tend to generate delocalized molecular dynamics. NQE often enhance electronic interactions and, in turn, can result in dynamical molecular stabilization at finite temperature. Our findings yield new insights into the versatile role of nuclear quantum fluctuations in molecules and materials.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-06-18T14:30:29Z)
• Quantum coherent spin-electric control in a molecular nanomagnet at clock transitions [57.50861918173065]
  Electrical control of spins at the nanoscale offers architectural advantages in spintronics. Recent demonstrations of electric-field (E-field) sensitivities in molecular spin materials are tantalising. E-field sensitivities reported so far are rather weak, prompting the question of how to design molecules with stronger spin-electric couplings.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-05-03T09:27:31Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.