Preparation of motional macroscopic quantum-interference states of a trapped ion
Shi‐Biao Zheng · Physical Review A · 1998
We propose a scheme for generating macroscopic quantum-interference (Schr\"odinger-cat) states of the motion of a trapped ion. In the scheme, a trapped ion is driven by two laser beams tuned to the first lower and upper vibrational sidebands, respectively. Under certain conditions, the detection of the internal state of the ion leaves the vibrational motion in a coherent state superposition. The scheme can be easily generalized to prepare other kinds of cat states.