Monroe, C.
, Meekhof, D.
, King, B.
and Wineland, D.
(1996),
A Schrödinger Cat" Superposition State of an Atom, Science, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=105030 (Accessed May 2, 2026)
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A Schrödinger Cat" Superposition State of an Atom
Published
Author(s)
C Monroe, D M. Meekhof, ,
Abstract
A "Schrödinger 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 Schrödinger 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.Citation
Science
Volume
272
Pub Type
Journals
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Created December 31, 1995, Updated October 12, 2021