Entanglement of a two-level atom and its spontaneous emission near the edge of a photonic band gap

Abstract

The entanglement of a two-level atom and its radiation field near the edge of a photonic band gap is studied by using the quantum entropy. Unlike the free space case, there is a steady-state entanglement between the atom and its spontaneous emission field even when the atomic transition frequency lies outside the band gap. Moreover, the degree of entanglement, which is due to the formation of atom–photon bound dressed state, depends on the detuning of the atomic transition frequency from the photonic band edge and can be controlled by a controllable photonic band gap crystal.