Macroscopic quantum states of a trapped ion

Abstract

The second-sideband Roman excitation of the motional ground state of a single ion trapped in a harmonic potential is analyzed in the strong Raman coupling regime. Appropriate Raman motional excitations driven by strong standing-wave lasers can be used to split the motional ground state to a macroscopic motional wave-packet state with spatial separation between the split parts comparable to the dimension of the involved ionic transition wavelengths. A spatial flat wave-packet with coherence persisting in a wide spatial range can also be excited. The spatial spread of such a spatial flat macroscopic motional wave-packet oscillates periodically during the free-time evolution in the harmonic trap, with a spatial flat distribution persisting at most of the oscillating times. ©2000 The American Physical Society.