Generation of Nonclassical Motional States of a Trapped Atom
D. M. Meekhof, Christopher R. Monroe, B. E. King +2 more
We report the creation of thermal, Fock, coherent, and squeezed states of motion of a harmonically bound 9 Be + ion. The last three states are coherently prepared from an ion which has been initially laser-cooled to the zero-point of motion. The ion is trapped in the regime where the coupling between its motional and internal states, due to applied (classical) radiation, can be described by a Jaynes-Cummings-type interaction. With this coupling, the evolution of the internal atomic state provides a signature of the number state distribution of the motion. PACS numbers:42.50.Vk, 32.80.Pj, 32.80.Qk Typeset using REVT E X Nonclassical states of the harmonic oscillator associated with a single mode of the radiation field (for example, squeezed states) have been a subject of considerable interest. One method for analyzing these states has been through the dynamics of a single, two-level atom which radiatively couples to the single mode radiation field. This system, described by the Ja...
Physical Review Letters•Sep 9, 1996•77 citations