We investigate how superpositions of motional coherent states naturally arise in the dynamics of a two-level trapped ion coupled to the quantized field inside a cavity. We extend our considerations, including a more realistic setup where the cavity is not ideal and photons may leak through its mirrors. We found that a detection of a photon outside the cavity would leave the ion in a pure state. The statistics of the ionic state still keeps some interference effects that might be observed in the weak-coupling regime.

• Received 2 March 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.71.065802