Robust scheme to generate N-atom W state in two distant cavities

We propose a scheme to realize W states for N-atoms trapped in two distant cavities connected by an optical fiber In the scheme, the cavity modes and fiber mode are not excited during the process. The quantum information is encoded in two degenerate ground states, so the atom's spontaneous emission can be omitted approximately Moreover, the operation speed increases with the number of the atoms without a limitation and thus the scheme is extremely robust against decoherence. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.