Generation of Nonclassical Motional States of a Trapped Atom

Abstract

We report the creation of thermal, Fock, coherent, and squeezed states of motion of a harmonically bound ${}^{9}{\mathrm{Be}}^{+}$ 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.