Abstract

We study the generation of both coherent superpositions and mixtures of field states through the interaction of an initially coherent field state with a collection of two-level atoms. The proposed scheme to build up a given superposition is based on effective dispersive interactions which arise from both the large detuning limit and the strong-field limit. The coherent superposition is obtained by interacting with a classical field after the cluster leaves the cavity followed by a measurement of the atomic population.