Dynamical creation of entanglement versus disentanglement in a system of three-level atoms with vacuum-induced coherences

The dynamics of entanglement between three-level atoms coupled to the common vacuum is investigated. We show that the collective effects such as collective damping, dipole-dipole interaction and the cross coupling between orthogonal dipoles, play a crucial role in the process of creation of entanglement. In particular, the additional cross coupling enhances the production of entanglement. For the specific initial states we find that the effect of delayed sudden birth of entanglement, recently invented by Ficek and Tana? [Ficek, R. Tana?, Phys. Rev. A 77 (2008) 054301] in the case of two-level atoms, can also be observed in the system. When the initial state is entangled, the process of spontaneous emission causes destruction of correlations and its disentanglement. We show that the robustness of initial entanglement against the noise can be changed by local operations performed on the state.