Generation and distribution of atomic entanglement in coupled-cavity arrays

Abstract

We study the dynamics of entanglement in a one-dimensional coupled-cavity array, with each cavity containing a two-level atom, via the Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard (JCH) Hamiltonian in the single-excitation sector. The model features a rich variety of dynamical regimes that can be harnessed for entanglement control. The protocol is based on setting an excited atom above the ground state and further letting it evolve following the natural dynamics of the Hamiltonian. Here we focus on the concurrence between pairs of atoms and its relation to atom-field correlations and the involved free-field modes. We show that the extension and distribution pattern of pairwise entanglement can be manipulated through a judicious tuning of the atom-cavity coupling strength. By also including static noise in the cavity frequencies, we explore the onset of Anderson localization and its interplay with the atomic trapping known to take place in the strong-hopping regime. Remarkably, we find that the stronger the disorder is, the higher are the atom-field correlations, whereas the atomic concurrence responds nonmonotonically. Overall, our work offers a comprehensive account of the machinery of the single-excitation JCH Hamiltonian and contributes to the design of hybrid light-matter quantum networks.