Measurement-based entanglement of non-interacting bosonic atoms

We demonstrate the ability to extract a spin-entangled state of two neutral atoms via postselection based on a measurement of their spatial configuration. Typically entangled states of neutral atoms are engineered via atom-atom interactions. In contrast, in our work we use Hong-Ou-Mandel interference to postselect a spin-singlet state after overlapping two atoms in distinct spin states on an effective beamsplitter. We verify the presence of entanglement and determine a bound on the postselected fidelity of a spin-singlet state of $\left(0.62 \pm 0.03\right)$. The experiment has direct analogy to creating polarization entanglement with single photons, and hence demonstrates the potential to use protocols developed for photons to create complex quantum states with non-interacting atoms.