Abstract
During many decades of the evolution of quantum physics, pertinent microphysical observations have been either restricted to huge ensembles of quantum objects, or to post-mortem relics like bubble chamber traces or scintillograms. But measurements on ensembles of quantum objects give rise to expectation values that represent classical quantities, not to eigenvalues, the results of quantum measurements. Moreover, destructive measurements lack repeatability and real-time recording. The preparation of individual trapped and laser-cooled ions [1, 2] admitted, for the first time, genuine repeatable quantum measurements in real time. Observations of such quantum objects allow the direct recording of various types of quantum dynamics, as Bohr’s quantum jumps [3] or radiative atomic nutation [4], as well as the detection of quantum correlations, in particular of the anti-bunching effect [5], and the preparation of a pre-selected vibronic state of a trapped ion, including the vacuum state, via “stochastic cooling” [6]. The selective and repeatable access to an individual quantum system by radiation also provides more profound understanding of the intricacies of quantum measurements [7], as the paradoxically extended lifetime of an unstable quantum system under reiterated observation [8, 9]. − Selective addressing of individual cold atomic particles is indispensable for the achievement of quantum computing based on coupled atomic qubits, as it is successfully demonstrated in several laboratories.
© 2015 IEEE
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