Journal of Modern Optics
Preparation of multicomponent cat states of the motion of a trapped ion by a single conditional measurement
Shi‐Biao Zheng
Abstract
A scheme is proposed for preparing superpositions of many equidistant coherent states on a circle for the motion of an ion in an anisotropic two-dimensional trap, in which the ion is tightly bound in the y direction. In the scheme the ion is excited by one laser field in the x direction and then by two laser fields propagating along the x and y directions alternately many times. Then a state-selective measurement on the ion is made, which collapses the vibrational motion to a coherent state superposition.