  We present a protocol that permits the generation of a subtle with
superposition with 2^(l+1) displaced number states on a circle in phase space
as target state for the center-of-mass motion of a trapped ion. Through a
sequence of 'l' cycles involving the application of laser pulses and
no-fluorescence measurements, explicit expressions for the total duration of
laser pulses employed in the sequence and probability of getting the ion in the
upper electronic state during the 'l' cycles are obtained and analyzed in
detail. Furthermore, assuming that the effective relaxation process of a
trapped ion can be described in the framework of the standard master equation
for the damped harmonic oscillator, we investigate the degradation of the
quantum interference effects inherent to superpositions via Wigner function.
