Scheme for preparation of multi-partite entanglement of atomic ensembles

We show a scheme of preparing multipartite W type of maximally entangled states among many atomic ensembles with the generation time increasing with the party number only polynomially. The scheme is based on laser manipulation of atomic ensembles and single-photon detection, and fits well the status of the current experimental technology. We also show one of the applications of this kind of W state, demonstrating Bell theorem without inequalities. (paper)