Alignment Transport Between Ultracold Polar Molecules

Abstract

We propose an array of ultracold polar molecules as a platform to study alignment transport between molecules. We envision a polar molecule being aligned with an intense off-resonant laser field whose alignment migrates to a nearby molecule due to dipole-dipole interactions. Our results show that the transport of the alignment is due to a complex interplay between electric field-driven excitations and dipole-dipole interactions. All mechanisms for transfer are elucidated and analyzed, and using NaCs, a prototype molecule, we find that the time for alignment transfer is $\mathcal{O}(10\mu\rm s)$, which makes the phenomena readily observable in the lab.