Monroe C, Meekhof DM, King BE, Wineland DJ
The authors are in the Time and Frequency Division, MS 847, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 80303, USA.
Science. 1996 May 24;272(5265):1131-6. doi: 10.1126/science.272.5265.1131.
A "Schrodinger cat"-like state of matter was generated at the single atom level. A trapped 9Be+ ion was laser-cooled to the zero-point energy and then prepared in a superposition of spatially separated coherent harmonic oscillator states. This state was created by application of a sequence of laser pulses, which entangles internal (electronic) and external (motional) states of the ion. The Schrodinger cat superposition was verified by detection of the quantum mechanical interference between the localized wave packets. This mesoscopic system may provide insight into the fuzzy boundary between the classical and quantum worlds by allowing controlled studies of quantum measurement and quantum decoherence.
在单原子水平上产生了一种类似“薛定谔猫”的物质状态。一个被俘获的9Be+离子被激光冷却到零点能量，然后制备成空间分离的相干谐波振荡器状态的叠加态。这种状态是通过施加一系列激光脉冲产生的，这些脉冲使离子的内部（电子）和外部（运动）状态纠缠在一起。通过检测局域波包之间的量子力学干涉，验证了薛定谔猫叠加态。这个介观系统可以通过允许对量子测量和量子退相干进行可控研究，来深入了解经典世界和量子世界之间的模糊边界。
