Stationary entanglement of photons and atoms in a high-finesse resonator

Abstract

We predict that the collective excitations of an atomic array become entangled with the light of a high-finesse cavity mode when they are suitably coupled. This entanglement is of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen type, it is robust against cavity losses and is a stationary property of the coupled system. It is generated when the atomic array is aligned along the cavity axis and driven transversally by a laser, when coherent scattering of photons into the cavity mode is suppressed because of phase-mismatching. We identify the parameter regimes under which entanglement is found and show that these are compatible with existing experimental setups.