Generation and distribution of atomic entanglement in coupled-cavity arrays

Abstract: We study the dynamics of entanglement in a 1D coupled-cavity array, 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 structure of the array. We show that the extension and distribution pattern of pairwise entanglement can be manipulated through a judicious tuning of the atom-cavity coupling strength only. Our work offers a comprehensive account over the machinery of the single-excitation JCH Hamiltonian as well as contributes to the design of hybrid light-matter quantum networks.