IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society Annual Meeting (LEOS)
Quantum state preparation and measurement
P. J. Bardroff, C. Leichtle, G. Schrade, W. P. Schleich
Abstract
Summary form only given. The recent experimental generation of nonclassical states of the motion of an ion in a Paul trap has propelled the field of quantum state preparation into a new era. But how to prove that the ion is indeed in a Fock, a squeezed, or a Schrodinger cat state? How can we measure a motional state which, due to the explicit time dependence of the binding force of the Paul trap, displays a complicated time dependence? In this paper we present the first method that measures a vibratory state of an ion taking into account the complete time dependence of the Paul trap. Moreover our technique operates outside the Lamb-Dicke regime and is not limited to pure states only.