Trapped ions in the strong excitation regime: ion interferometry and non--classical states

The interaction of a trapped ion with a laser beam in the strong excitation regime is analyzed. In this regime, a variety of non--classical states of motion can be prepared either by using laser pulses of well defined area, or by an adiabatic passage scheme based on the variation of the laser frequency. We show how these states can be used to investigate fundamental properties of quantum mechanics. We also study possible applications of this system to build an ion interferometer.Comment: 9 pages, Revtex format, 5 compressed postscript figure

Atoms in the counter-propagating frequency-modulated waves: splitting, cooling, confinement

We show that the counter-propagating frequency-modulated (FM) waves of the same intensity can split an orthogonal atomic beam into two beams. We calculate the temperature of the atomic ensemble for the case when the atoms are grouped around zero velocity in the direction of the waves propagation. The high-intensity laser radiation with a properly chosen carrier frequency can form a one-dimensional trap for atoms. We carry out the numerical simulation of the atomic motion (two-level model of the atom-field interaction) using parameters appropriate for sodium atoms and show that sub-Doppler cooling can be reached. We suppose that such a cooling is partly based on the cooling without spontaneous emission in polychromatic waves [H. Metcalf, Phys. Rev. A 77, 061401 (2008)]. We calculate the state of the atom in the field by the Monte Carlo wave-function method and describe its mechanical motion by the classical mechanics