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Phys. Rev. A 65, 040102(R) (2002) [4 pages]

Measuring irreversible dynamics of a quantum harmonic oscillator

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Giovanna Morigi1, Enrique Solano1,2, Berthold-Georg Englert1, and Herbert Walther1
1Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Strasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
2Sección Física, Departamento de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Apartado 1761, Lima, Peru

Received 20 August 2001; published 10 April 2002

We show that the unitary evolution of a harmonic oscillator coupled to a two-level system can be undone by a suitable manipulation of the two-level system—more specifically, by a quasi-instantaneous phase change. This enables us to isolate the dissipative evolution to which the oscillator may be exposed in addition. With this method we study the decoherence time of a photon mode in cavity QED, and that of the quantized harmonic motion of trapped ions. We comment on the relation to spin echoes and multipath interferometry.

© 2002 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.65.040102
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.65.040102
PACS:
03.65.Yz, 32.80.Qk, 42.50.Ct
 
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