  Raman-type laser excitation of a trapped atom allows one to realize the
quantum mechanical counterpart of phenomena of nonlinear optics, such as
Kerr-type nonlinearities, parametric amplification, and multi-mode mixing.
Additionally, huge nonlinearities emerge from the interference of the atomic
wave function with the laser waves. They lead to a partitioning of the phase
space accompanied by a significantly different action of the time evolution in
neighboring phase-space zones. For example, a nonlinearly modified coherent
"displacement" of the motional quantum state may induce strong amplitude
squeezing and quantum interferences.
