Disentanglement of atom-photon via quantum interference in driven three-level atoms

In this paper, the effect of quantum interference on the entanglement of a driven V-type three-level atom and its spontaneous emission field was investigated by using the quantum entropy. The results indicate that, in the absence of quantum interference the atom and its spontaneous emission field are always entangled at the steady-state. But, in the presence of full quantum interference their steady-state entanglement depends on the atomic parameters. Specifically, with appropriate atomic parameters they can be entangled or disentangled at the steady-state. We realized that the steady-state entanglement is due to completely destructive nature of quantum interference. On the contrary, the steady-state disentanglement is due to instructive nature of quantum interference. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.