Abstract
A technique for entangling closely separated atoms by the process of dissipative spontaneous emission is presented. The system considered is composed of two non-identical two-level atoms separated at the quarter wavelength of a driven standing wave laser field. At this atomic distance, only one of the atoms can be addressed by the laser field. In addition, we arrange the atomic dipole moments to be oriented relative to the inter-atomic axis such that the dipole-dipole interaction between the atoms is zero at this specific distance. It is shown that an entanglement can be created between the atoms on demand by tuning the Rabi frequency of the driving field to the difference between the atomic transition frequencies. The amount of the entanglement created depends on the ratio between the damping rates of the atoms, but is independent of the frequency difference between the atoms. We also find that the transient buildup of an entanglement between the atoms may differ dramatically for different initial atomic conditions.