TY - JOUR T1 - Pendular trapping conditions for ultracold polar molecules enforced by external electric fields JF - Physical Review A Y1 - 2017 A1 - Ming Li A1 - Alexander Petrov A1 - Constantinos Makrides A1 - Eite Tiesinga A1 - Svetlanta Kotochigova AB -

We theoretically investigate trapping conditions for ultracold polar molecules in optical lattices, when external magnetic and electric fields are simultaneously applied. Our results are based on an accurate electronic-structure calculation of the polar 23Na40K polar molecule in its absolute ground state combined with a calculation of its rovibrational-hyperfine motion. We find that an electric field strength of 5.26(15) kV/cm and an angle of 54.7 between this field and the polarization of the optical laser lead to a trapping design for 23Na40K molecules where decoherences due laser-intensity fluctuations and fluctuations in the direction of its polarization are kept to a minimum. One standard deviation systematic and statistical uncertainties are given in parenthesis. Under such conditions pairs of hyperfine-rotational states of v=0 molecules, used to induce tunable dipole-dipole interactions between them, experience ultrastable, matching trapping forces.

VL - 95 U4 - 063422 UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.03839 CP - 6 U5 - 10.1103/PhysRevA.95.063422 ER -