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Chinese Physics Letters

Direct Measurement of Squeezing in the Motion of Trapped Ions

Zeng Hao-Sheng, Hu Ai-Qin, Qiong Liu, Kuang Le-Man

Published Mar 23, 2005• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a simple method that can be used to directly measure the squeezing of the quantum motional states of a trapped ion. Through the use of the interaction between the trapped ion and classical lasers, one can design a required coupling between the internal electronic and external vibrational degrees of freedom of the ion and can transfer information of the expectation value of a vibrational operator to the atomic internal populations. Thus measurement of squeezing on the quantum motional state can directly be realized. By adjusting the phases of the interacting lasers, one can measure the squeezing of both position and momentum quadratures.

DOI
10.1088/0256-307x/22/4/005

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We present a simple method that can be used to directly measure the squeezing of the quantum motional states of a trapped ion. Through the use of the interaction between the trapped ion and classical lasers, one can design a required coupling between the internal electronic and external vibrational degrees of freedom of the ion and can transfer information of the expectation value of a vibrational operator to the atomic internal populations. Thus measurement of squeezing on the quantum motional state can directly be realized. By adjusting the phases of the interacting lasers, one can measure the squeezing of both position and momentum quadratures.
We present a theoretical model for realizing squeezed lasing in a trapped-ion system without relying on engineered baths or tailored dissipative reservoirs. Our approach leverages the intrinsic ion-phonon interactions, where two trapped ions, each interacting with a shared vibrational mode, are driven on both red- and blue-sideband transitions. This enables the creation of a squeezed state of motion through the dynamic coupling between the ions' internal states and the phonon mode. Unlike traditional methods that require bath engineering, our model demonstrates that squeezed lasing can be achieved through a direct manipulation of ion-phonon interactions, with no external reservoirs required. We explore the steady-state behavior of the system, analyzing the onset of lasing, gain-loss balance, and the role of the squeezing parameter in shaping the phonon field's statistical properties. Furthermore, we show how external coherent drives can stabilize phase coherence and achieve controlled quadrature squeezing, offering a simple yet effective method for achieving squeezed lasing in quantum mechanical systems. Our findings provide new insights into the realization of squeezed states in phonon-based systems, with potential applications in quantum metrology and information processing.
In this paper, a procedure is proposed for measuring Wigner characteristic function for motion of a single trapped ion. In the scheme, the trapped ion is driven by two laser beams with different frequencies tuned to the first lower and upper vibrational sidebands, respectively. Unlike other previous scheme, our scheme does not require the displacement of the external state before the ion-laser interaction and thus our scheme might be more simple and feasible. The scheme can also be used to prepare the motional Schrodinger cat states and entangled coherent states.
Spatial correlation functions provide a glimpse into the quantum correlations within a quantum system. Ions in a linear trap collectively form a nonuniform, discretized background on which a scalar field of phonons propagates. Trapped ions have the experimental advantage of each having their own "built-in" motional detector: electronic states that can be coupled, via an external laser, to the ion's vibrational motion. The post-interaction electronic state can be read out with high efficiency, giving a stochastic measurement record whose classical correlations reflect the quantum correlations of the ions' collective vibrational state. Here we calculate this general result, then we discuss the long detection-time limit and specialize to Gaussian states, and finally we compare the results for thermal versus squeezed states.
I propose an efficient method for measuring nonlinear coupling between the collective axial breathing mode and the radial rocking mode induced by the mutual Coulomb repulsion in linear ion crystal. The quantum sensing technique is based on the laser-induced coupling between one of the vibrational modes and the internal ion's spin states which allows to estimate the nonlinear coupling either by measuring the phonon probability distribution or by directly observing the Ramsey-type oscillations of the ion spin states. I show that due to the presence of nonlinear phonon coupling the off-resonance interaction between the ion spin states and the axial breathing mode leads to spin-dependent phonon squeezing of the radial rocking mode. Thus the nonlinear coupling can be estimated by measuring population distribution of the motional squeezed state. Furthermore, I show that the off-resonance interaction between the spin and the radial rocking mode creates a spin-dependent beam splitter operation between the two vibrational modes. Thus the parameter estimation can be carried out by detecting the ion spin populations. Finally, I show that the measurement uncertainty precision can reach the Heisenberg limit by using an entangled state between the two collective modes.
Although quantum mechanics has been able to explain a wide range of physical, chemical, and even biological events with unprecedented accuracy, fundamental problems remain. For instance, the problem of quantum measurement and quantum entanglement, which are the most perplexing problems that have persisted since the foundation of quantum mechanics. Both are crucial quantum resources with broad applications in quantum information science, quantum computing and quantum optics. For this reason, this thesis is devoted to research the quantum measurement from the weakest regime to the strongest one as well as the dynamics of entanglement of different quantum systems. In this work, we study the measurement transition for a coherent-squeezed pointer state through a transition factor Γ that involves a system-pointer coupling by using an arbitrary measured observable A. In addition, we show that the shift in the pointer’s position and momentum establishes a relationship with a new value defined as the transition value, which generalizes the weak value as well as the conditional expectation value. Furthermore, a new strategy is introduced to achieve different measurement regimes by just adjusting the r and ϕξ parameters of the coherent-squeezed pointer state, opening an interesting way to test quantum mechanics foundations. Our scheme has been theoretically applied in a trapped ion illuminated by a bichromatic laser beam, with a high potential to be implemented in future experimental setups. Besides, we propose a method to regulate the quantum entanglement in the system mentioned before as well as a dispersive-hybrid system where a qubit is directly coupled to a cavity and a mechanical resonator. Entanglement can be controlled by only tuning the squeezing parameters associated with the vibrational mode. As the squeezing amplitude becomes larger, the maximal entanglement abruptly falls to zero at specific squeezing phases. For the hybrid system, it is also possible to generate entanglement for bipartitions from the qubit-cavity-resonator system after applying this strategy. Entangled qubit-cavity states are created through squeezing, even though there is no direct interaction between them. We also analyze the effect of atomic, optical, and vibrational losses on the quantum entanglement. We finally discuss our schemes to be implemented in future experimental setups and promote further studies to generalize the concept of “monogamy of entanglement” in tripartite systems outside qubit-composite states, in particular, (2 ⊗ 2 ⊗ n)-dimensional systems.