English

Tuning interactions between static-field-shielded polar molecules with microwaves

Quantum Gases 2026-03-24 v2 Atomic Physics Quantum Physics

Abstract

The ability to tune interparticle interactions is one of the main advantages of using ultracold quantum gases for quantum simulation of many-body physics. Current experiments with ultracold polar molecules employ shielding with microwave or static electric fields to prevent destructive collisional losses. The interaction potential of microwave-shielded molecules can be tuned by using microwaves of two different polarisations, while for static-field-shielded molecules the tunability of interactions is more limited and depends on the particular species. In this work, we propose a general method to tune the interactions between static-field-shielded molecules by applying a microwave field. We carry out coupled-channel scattering calculations in a field-dressed basis set to determine loss rate coefficients and scattering lengths. We find that both the s-wave scattering length and the dipole length can be widely tuned by changing the parameters of the microwave field, while maintaining strong suppression of lossy collisions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.03225,
  title  = {Tuning interactions between static-field-shielded polar molecules with microwaves},
  author = {Christopher J. Ho and Joy Dutta and Bijit Mukherjee and Jeremy M. Hutson and Michael R. Tarbutt},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.03225},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

6 pages, 4 figures, minor revisions

R2 v1 2026-07-01T09:33:42.133Z