Towards probabilistic entanglement of distant atoms

The paper discussed on the generation of non-local entanglement. This relies on the state reduction of a projective measurement of the internal atomic states of both atoms. In this scheme both atoms are coherently excited by a weak excitation pulse by which a single photon is scattered with low probability. The authors are currently setting up an experimental system to implement this proposal with two trapped ions in two macroscopically separated traps.