Microwave Shielding of Ultracold Polar Molecules

We use microwaves to engineer repulsive long-range interactions between ultracold polar molecules. The resulting shielding suppresses various loss mechanisms and provides large elastic cross sections. Hyperfine interactions limit the shielding under realistic conditions, but a magnetic field allows suppression of the losses to below 10^{-14} cm^{3} s^{-1}. The mechanism and optimum conditions for shielding differ substantially from those proposed by Gorshkov et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 073201 (2008)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.101.073201], and do not require cancellation of the long-range dipole-dipole interaction that is vital to many applications.