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Updated: May 27, 2026

From Molecules to Materials: Engineering New Ionic Liquid Crystals Through Halogen Bonding
Published on: March 24, 2018
Trimer liquids and crystals of polar molecules in coupled wires
M Dalmonte1, P Zoller, G Pupillo
1Dipartimento di Fisica dell'Università di Bologna and INFN, Bologna, Italy.
Abstract:
We investigate pairing and crystalline instabilities of bosonic and fermionic polar molecules confined to a ladder geometry. Combining analytical and numerical techniques, we show that gases of composite molecular dimers as well as trimers can be stabilized as a function of the density difference between the wires. A shallow optical lattice can pin both liquids, realizing crystals of composite bosons and fermions. We show that these exotic quantum phases are robust against conditions of confinement of the molecular gas to harmonic finite-size potentials.
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