Spin squeezing and entanglement via hole-burning in atomic coherent states

We study the generation of spin squeezing via the hole burning of selected Dicke states out of an atomic coherent state prepared for a collection of N two-level atoms or ions. The atoms or ions of the atomic coherent state are not entangled, but the removal of one or more Dicke states generates entanglement, and spin squeezing occurs for some ranges of the relevant parameters. Spin squeezing in a collection of two-level atoms or ions is of importance for precision spectroscopy.