Robust Scheme for Entangling Two Distant Atoms

A robust scheme is presented for realizing entangled states for two atoms trapped in separate cavities connected by an optical fiber. The first atom is initially in a superposition of the excited state and an auxiliary ground state not coupled to the first cavity, while the second one is initially in the ground state coupled to the second cavity. The scheme involves two atom-cavity-fiber interactions accompanied by the monitoring of the cavity decay and atomic spontaneous emission. The two atoms evolve to an entangled state through exchanging an excitation after the first interaction. The states with the excitation failing to be transferred are eliminated when a photon is detected during the second interaction. Therefore, the scheme is insensitive to the decoherence effect and detection inefficiency.