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Physical Review A

Atomic Schrödinger cat states

G. S. Agarwal, Ravinder Rupchand Puri, Ravindra Pratap Singh

Published Sep 1, 1997• 247 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We consider a physical process that leads to the generation of atomic Schr\"odinger cat states for a system of two level atoms. The effective interaction between atoms in a dispersive cavity leads to the superposition of atomic coherent states. We study in detail the quasidistributions for these states and demonstrate how the Schr\"odinger cat states can lead to interesting interferences over the surface of a sphere.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.56.2249

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We consider a physical process that leads to the generation of atomic Schr"odinger cat states for a system of two level atoms. The effective interaction between atoms in a dispersive cavity leads to the superposition of atomic coherent states. We study in detail the quasidistributions for these states and demonstrate how the Schr"odinger cat states can lead to interesting interferences over the surface of a sphere.
A simple method is presented for generating multicomponent Schrödinger cat states through resonant atom-field interactions. In the scheme n two-level atoms, initially in ground states, are sent through a resonant cavity filled with a strong coherent field sequentially. Then state-selective measurements are performed on the atoms. The detections of the atoms in ground states collapse the cavity field onto a superposition of 2 n coherent states. This is the first way for producing superpositions of many coherent states through resonant atom-field interaction.
A scheme is proposed for the generation of superpositions of multi-mode coherent states, i.e. multi-mode Schrödinger cat states. In the scheme a -type three-level atom is sent through many cavities filled with coherent fields. The whole system is entangled via the Raman atom-field interaction. Then the detection of the atom leaves the cavity system in a multi-mode cat state. Under certain conditions, such a cat state is identical to a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state and thus can be used to test local realistic theories.
Schrödinger cat states, representing coherent superpositions of macroscopically distinguishable states, are indispensable nonclassical resources for continuous-variable quantum information processing. Existing generation protocols typically rely on strong nonlinear interactions, complicated control techniques, or engineered dissipation, posing challenges for experimental implementation. Here, we propose a simple measurement-based protocol for generating Schrödinger cat states in a cavity-QED system by combining coherent driving, dispersive atom--cavity interactions, and atomic postselection. The atom--cavity interaction establishes coherent correlations between the atomic and photonic degrees of freedom, while the subsequent atomic postselection projects the cavity field onto a non-Gaussian superposition state with pronounced Wigner negativity. Numerical simulations based on the Lindblad master equation show that the generated Schrödinger cat states remain robust against moderate cavity dissipation. Our results demonstrate that conditional atomic measurements provide an effective and experimentally accessible approach for preparing nonclassical cavity states without relying on strong optical nonlinearities or engineered dissipation.
Higher-generation Schrödinger cat states of the quantized electromagnetic field can be produced in a high-Q cavity, starting from a coherent state, through the passage of prepared Rydberg atoms interacting dispersively across it. These states are natural generalizations of the even and odd coherent states, the N th-generations corresponding to specific superpositions of 2 N states on a circle in phase space with well defined parity, and present very peculiar properties. Their photon statistics interchange between super- and sub-Poissonian behaviours and the nature of the photon bunching oscillates as the field intensity in the cavity is varied. For higher-generation even states, the minimum value of the Mandel factor almost reaches −1.0 and the state represents the Fock state |2 N ). Squeezing properties and the Wigner function of these higher-generation Schrödinger cat states are also considered.