Vibrational pair cat states

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Abstract
We propose a scheme for generating mesoscopic superpositions of two distinguishable pair coherent states of motion in a two-dimensional ion trap. In our scheme, the trapped ion is excited bichromatically by five laser beams along different directions in the X-Y plane of the ion trap. Four of these have the same frequency and can be derived from the same source, reducing the demands on the experimentalist. We show that if the initial vibrational state is given by a two-mode Fock state, as demonstrated in recent experiments, these highly correlated two-mode ‘‘Schrödinger cat’’ states are realized when the system reaches its steady state, which is indicated by the extinction of the fluorescence emitted by the ion. © 1996 The American Physical Society.