Entanglement induced by spontaneous emission in spatially extended two-atom systems

We investigate the role of the collective antisymmetric state in entanglement creation by spontaneous emission in a system of two non-overlapping two-level atoms. We calculate and illustrate graphically populations of the collective atomic states and the Wootters entanglement measure (concurrence) for two sets of initial atomic conditions. Our calculations include the dipole-dipole interaction and a spatial separation between the atoms that the antisymmetric state of the system is included throughout even for small interatomic separations. It is shown that spontaneous emission can lead to a transient entanglement between the atoms even if the atoms were prepared initially in an unentangled state. We find that the ability of spontaneous emission to create the transient entanglement relies on the absence of population in the collective symmetric state of the system. For the initial state of only one atom excited, the entanglement builds up rapidly in time and reaches a maximum for the parameter values corresponding roughly to zero population in the symmetric state. On the other hand, for the initial condition of both atoms excited, the atoms remain unentangled until the symmetric state is depopulated. A simple physical interpretation of these results is given in terms of the diagonal states of the density matrix of the system. We also study entanglement creation in a system of two non-identical atoms of different transition frequencies. It is found that the entanglement between the atoms can be enhanced compared to that for identical atoms, and can decay with two different time scales resulting from the coherent transfer of the population from the symmetric to the antisymmetric state. In addition, we find that a decaying initial entanglement between the atoms can display a revival behaviour.