Generating conditional atomic entanglement by measuring photon number in a single output channel

The polarization analysis of quantized probe light transmitted through an atomic ensemble has been used to prepare entangled collective atomic states. In a 'balanced' detection configuration, where the difference signal from two detection ports is analyzed, the continuous monitoring of a component of the Stokes field vector provides a means for conditional projective measurements on the atomic system. Here, we make use of classical driving fields, in the pulsed regime, and of an 'unbalanced' detection setup (single detector) where the effective photon number of scattered photons is the detected observable. Conditional atomic spin squeezed states and superpositions of such squeezed states can be prepared in this manner.