Kluwer Academic Publishers eBooks
Preparation of Highly Excited Motional Energy Eigenstates with a Trapped Atom
Sascha Wallentowitz, W. Vogel, P. E. Toschek
Abstract
Highly excited eigenstates of the motion of an individual spatially confined atom may be prepared making use of a “trapping” mechanism based on the nonlinearity of the laser-mediated coupling of internal excitation and center-of-mass vibration of the atom. In contrast to micromaser-type trapping states, these states are insensitive to laser-phase fluctuations, and a long sequence of laser pulses may be applied to the atom with little degradation only of the atomic motion. Thus, vibrational number states of high quantum numbers are achievable.