Scalable preparation of three-atom and four-atom W states via atom-cavity-laser interaction

We propose the optical generation of W states for three atomic and four atomic qubits, with each qubit trapped in a separate cavity and coupled to the cavity laser. A single-photon source and two classical fields are employed in the present scheme. By encoding the quantum information of each qubit on the degenerate ground states of the atom, we obtain the atomic entanglement that is relatively stable against spontaneous emission. It is demonstrated that the three- and four-atomic W states can be produced deterministically via a proper manipulation of the atom-cavity interaction sequence and time. Generalization of the present scheme to prepare multi-atomic W states is also discussed. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.