Experimental demonstration of weak value amplification in trapped ion system

Abstract

Weak value amplification can introduce signal enhancement property into quantum measurement process, and has been widely used to improve the standard optical interferometric techniques and observe a series of weak optical effect. It is very appealing to study the merging of weak value amplification into the atomic interferometric process. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the first realization of weak value amplification in the trapped ion system. Our measurement model identifies the internal electronic states and external motional states of a single trapped $^{40}$Ca$^+$ ion as the system degree and pointer degree respectively, and their controllable weak linear coupling is provided by a bichromatic light field. By performing appropriate postselection on the internal states, a tiny position displacement of $\sim \SI{4}{\angstrom } $ of the trapped ion is amplified to $\sim \SI{10}{\nano\meter}$ in our experiment. The extreme sensitivity of the amplification effect to the superposition phase of the quantum state is also demonstrated. This experiment can serve as an important step towards the exploration of weak value amplification in atomic interferometric techniques and has much potential in the studies of fundamental quantum mechanics and quantum metrology.