Time-of-flight quantum tomography of an atom in an optical tweezer

A single particle trapped in a harmonic potential can exhibit rich motional quantum states within its high-dimensional state space. Quantum characterization of motion is key, for example, in controlling or harnessing motion in trapped ion and atom systems or observing the quantum nature of the vibrational excitations of solid-state objects. Here we show that the direct measurement of position and momentum can be used for quantum tomography of motional states of a single trapped particle.