Quantum harmonic oscillator state synthesis by reservoir engineering
  The robust generation of quantum states in the presence of decoherence is a primary challenge for explorations of quantum mechanics at larger scales. Using the mechanical motion of a single trapped ion, we utilize reservoir engineering to generate squeezed, coherent and displaced-squeezed states as steady states in the presence of noise. We verify the created state by generating two-state correlated spin-motion Rabi oscillations resulting in high contrast measurements. For both cooling and measurement, we use spin-oscillator couplings that provide transitions between oscillator states in an engineered Fock state basis. Our approach should facilitate studies of entanglement, quantum computation, and open-system quantum simulations in a wide range of physical systems. 
D. Kienzler, H.-Y. Lo, B. Keitch, L. de Clercq, F. Leupold, F.   Lindenfelser, M. Marinelli, V. Negnevitsky, J. P. Home
quant-ph