ua nt - p h / 01 10 01 3 v 2 3 1 M ay 2 00 2 Atomic entanglement near a realistic microsphere

We study a scheme for entangling two-level atoms located close to the surface of a dielectric microsphere. The effect is based on medium-assisted spontaneous decay, rigorously taking into account dispersive and absorptive properties of the microsphere. We show that even in the weak-coupling regime, where the Markov approximation applies, entanglement up to 0.35 ebits between two atoms can be created. However, larger entanglement and violation of Bell's inequality can only be achieved in the strong-coupling regime.