Entanglement-induced population trapping by Schrödinger's cat
Christopher C. Gerry, R. Grobe · Journal of Modern Optics · 1999
We propose an experiment that is a variation of the Schrödinger's cat ′paradox' wherein the entanglement between a microscopic system and a macroscopic system is of primary interest. The experiment involves tunable entanglement and serves as a model for controllable decoherence in the context of cavity quantum electrodynamics where atoms interact dispersively with a cavity field initially in a coherent state. The interaction produces an entanglement between the atom and the field, and the degree of entanglement can be probed by subjecting the atom to resonant classical radiation after it leaves the cavity. The amplitude of the resulting Rabi oscillations reflects the degree of the entanglement, there being no Rabi oscillations when the entanglement is maximum. We show that the cavity damping does not affect the experiment.