Abstract

Recently several proposals have been made to measure the quantum state of the vibrational motion of a single trapped atom [1] and of a cavity radiation-mode [2,3]. On the other hand, we have proposed the measurement of quasiprobability distributions of a light mode via unbalanced homodyning [4], where the determination of the quantum state is based on a coherent displacement (due to the local oscillator) and the measurement of the photon-number statistics. In the present contribution we consider the application of similar methods for the determination of quasiprobability distributions for cavity fields and the motion of trapped atoms.

© 1996 IEEE