Controlling two-species Mott-insulator phases in an optical lattice to form an array of dipolar molecules

We consider the transfer of a two-species Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) into an optical lattice with a density such that a Mott-insulator state with one atom per species per lattice site is obtained in a deep lattice regime. Depending on collisional and transition parameters, the result could be either a mixed or a separated Mott-insulator phase. Such a mixed two-species insulator would be well suited for the formation of dipolar molecules via photoassociation. The resulting array of dipolar molecules could then be used for the formation of a dipolar molecular condensate or for computation. For the case of a Rb-87-K-41 two-species BEC, however, the large interspecies scattering length makes it difficult to obtain the desired mixed Mott-insulator phase. To overcome this difficulty, we investigate the effect of varying the lattice frequency on the mean-field interaction and propose a favorable parameter regime, under which a lattice of dipolar molecules could be generated.