Environment induced entanglement in cavity-QED

The effects of dissipative dynamics on the magnitude of entanglement generated in atom-photon interactions inside cavities is studied. We present some concrete examples of environment induced entanglement in atom-photon interactions. We consider various dissipative atom-cavity systems and show that their collective dynamics can be used to maximize entanglement for intermediate values of the cavity leakage parameter kappa. We first consider the interaction of a single two-level atom with one of two coupled microwave cavities and show analytically that the atom-cavity entanglement increases with cavity leakage. We next consider a system of two atoms passing successively through a cavity and derive the expression for the maximum value of in terms of the Rabi angle gt, for which the two-atom entanglement can be increased. Finally, numerical investigation of micromaser dynamics also reveals the increase of two-atom entanglement with stronger cavity-environment coupling for experimentally attainable values of the micromaser parameters.