EXPERIMENTAL PREPARATION AND MEASUREMENT OF QUANTUM STATES OF MOTION OF A TRAPPED ATOM

We report the creation and full determination of several quantum state s of motion of a Be-9(+) ion bound in a RF (Paul) trap. The states are coherently prepared from an ion which has been initially laser cooled to the zero-point of motion. We create states having both classical a nd non-classical character including thermal, number, coherent, squeez ed, and 'Schrodinger cat' states. The motional quantum state is fully reconstructed using two novel schemes that determine the density matri x in the number slate basis or the Wigner function. Our techniques all ow well controlled experiments decoherence and related phenomena on th e quantum-classical borderline.