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Abstract

We show that the electric dipole–dipole interaction between a pair of polar molecules undergoes an all-out transformation when superimposed by a far-off-resonant optical field. The combined interaction potential becomes tunable by variation of wavelength, polarisation and intensity of the optical field and its dependence on the intermolecular separation exhibits a crossover from an inverse-power to an oscillating behaviour. The ability thereby offered to control molecular interactions opens up avenues toward the creation and manipulation of novel phases of ultracold polar gases among whose characteristics is a long-range entanglement of the dipoles' mutual orientation. We devised an accurate analytic model of such optical-field-dressed dipole–dipole interaction potentials, which enables a straightforward access to the optical-field parameters required for the design of intermolecular interactions in the laboratory.