Quantum Anti-Zeno Effect in Single Trapped Ion

We experimentally demonstrate the quantum anti-Zeno effect in a two-level system based on a single trapped ion. In the large detuning regime, we show that the transfer from the ground state to the excited state can be remarkably enhanced by the inserted projection measurements with an upper bound of probability 0.5, while the transfer barely occurs in the non-measurement case. The inserted measurements in our experiment are realized by the electron shelving technique. Compared to the ideal projection measurement, which makes the quantum state collapse instantaneously, a practical electron shelving process needs a finite time duration for state decoherence. We give a detailed theoretical model to describe the dynamics of the quantum state during the practical measurement process. By numerically fitting the experimental data with this theoretical model, we obtain the required minimum value of this time duration with which the experimental results agree well with the anti-Zeno effect theoretical model.