Observation of Microwave Shielding of Ultracold Molecules
Atomic Physics
2021-08-25 v1 Quantum Gases
Abstract
Harnessing the potential wide-ranging quantum science applications of molecules will require control of their interactions. Here, we use microwave radiation to directly engineer and tune the interaction potentials between ultracold calcium monofluoride (CaF) molecules. By merging two optical tweezers, each containing a single molecule, we probe collisions in three dimensions. The correct combination of microwave frequency and power creates an effective repulsive shield, which suppresses the inelastic loss rate by a factor of six, in agreement with theoretical calculations. The demonstrated microwave shielding shows a general route to the creation of long-lived, dense samples of ultracold molecules and evaporative cooling.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2102.04365,
title = {Observation of Microwave Shielding of Ultracold Molecules},
author = {Loïc Anderegg and Sean Burchesky and Yicheng Bao and Scarlett S. Yu and Tijs Karman and Eunmi Chae and Kang-Kuen Ni and Wolfgang Ketterle and John M. Doyle},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2102.04365},
year = {2021}
}