TY - JOUR AB - We study the growth dynamics of ordered structures of strongly interacting polar molecules in optical lattices. Using a dipole blockade of microwave excitations, we map the system onto an interacting spin-1/2 model possessing ground states with crystalline order, and describe a way to prepare these states by nonadiabatically driving the transitions between molecular rotational levels. The proposed technique bypasses the need to cross a phase transition and allows for the creation of ordered domains of considerably larger size compared to approaches relying on adiabatic preparation. AU - Lemeshko, Mikhail AU - Krems, Roman AU - Weimer, Hendrik ID - 2201 IS - 3 JF - Physical Review Letters TI - Nonadiabatic preparation of spin crystals with ultracold polar molecules VL - 109 ER -