Generation of a maximally entangled state using collective optical pumping

We propose and implement a novel scheme for dissipatively pumping two qubits into a singlet Bell state. The method relies on a process of collective optical pumping to an excited level, to which all states apart from the singlet are coupled. We apply the method to deterministically entangle two trapped ${}^{40}text{Ca}^+$ ions with a fidelity of $93(1)%$. We theoretically analyze the performance and error susceptibility of the scheme and find it to be insensitive to a large class of experimentally relevant noise sources.