S. A. Gardiner

We propose an experimental configuration, within an ion trap, by which a quantum mechanical delta-kicked harmonic oscillator could be realized, and investigated. We show how to directly measure the sensitivity of the ion motion to small variations in the external parameters.

We describe a method to perform a single quantum measurement of an arbitrary observable of a single ion moving in a harmonic potential. We illustrate the measurement procedure with explicit examples, namely the position and phase observables.