Measurement of the decoherence of a mesoscopic superposition of motional states of a trapped ion

We propose a scheme to observe the decoherence of a mesoscopic superposition of two coherent states in the motion of a trapped ion. In the scheme the ion is excited by two perpendicular lasers tuned to the ion transition. The decoherence is revealed by the decrease of the correlation between two successive measurements of the internal state of the ion after relevant laser－ion interaction.