Scheme for direct measurement of the two-mode Wigner function in cavity QED and ion traps.

Abstract

A scheme is proposed for the reconstruction of two-mode entangled states in cavity QED and ion traps. For a two-mode field we show that the Wigner function can be obtained by measuring the probability of a two-level atom being in ground states after resonant interaction with two classical fields and dispersive interaction with the two-mode cavity field displaced by resonant sources. For the two-dimensional motion of a trapped ion the Wigner function is obtained by measuring the probability of the ion in its ground electronic state after displacing the ion motion and then resonantly exciting the ion.