Anisotropy-Induced Effects in the Dynamics of an Ion Confined in a Two-Dimensional Paul Trap

We investigate the role of anisotropy in the dynamics of a single trapped ion interacting with two orthogonal laser beams, considering how it modifies a scheme for the generation of Schrödinger cat states and the so called parity effect in two-dimensional isotropic Paul traps. We find that anisotropy gives rise to a richer class for the generated states and to a larger number of observables sensitive to the parity of the number of excitation of the vibrational motion of the ion