Atomic dark states and motional entanglement in cavity QED

Abstract

A destructive interference mechanism that protects atomic dark states from entanglement with undesirable motional degrees of freedom for atoms trapped inside an optical cavity is described in a number of examples. Estimates of the motional decoherence rate for dark states are given, and the rates are shown to be slower than naive Lamb-Dicke estimates would suggest. This may be practically useful in the implementation of quantum logic with trapped atoms in optical cavity QED using adiabatic passage techniques.