Manipulation of Motional Quantum States of Neutral Atoms

Cold Cs atoms are cooled into the ground state ( n0ex0ex=0ex0ex0) of a far detuned 1D optical lattice. From this state, we prepare and detect several quantum states of motion. First, we produce squeezed states of n0ex0ex=0ex0ex0 (and n0ex0ex=0ex0ex1) and record the time evolution of the velocity distribution of these states. A velocity distribution compressed by a factor of 4 compared to that of the ground state is obtained. Second, we prepare a linear superposition of n0ex0ex=0ex0ex0 and n0ex0ex=0ex0ex1 and observe its time evolution.