Creation of a Dipolar Superfluid in Optical Lattices

Abstract

We show that, by loading a Bose-Einstein condensate of two different atomic species into an optical lattice, it is possible to achieve a Mott-insulator phase with exactly one atom of each species per lattice site. A subsequent photoassociation leads to the formation of one heteronuclear molecule with a large electric dipole moment, at each lattice site. The melting of such a dipolar Mott insulator creates a dipolar superfluid, and eventually a dipolar molecular condensate.