Using optical Ramsey interferometry, we precisely measure the laser-induced
AC-stark shift on the S1/2 -- D5/2 "quantum bit" transition near 729
nm in a single trapped 40Ca+ ion. We cancel this shift using an
additional laser field. This technique is of particular importance for the
implementation of quantum information processing with cold trapped ions. As a
simple application we measure the atomic phase evolution during a n×2π rotation of the quantum bit.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure