Entanglement in a generalized Jaynes--Cummings model

We investigate the pairwise entanglement and global entanglement in a generalized Jaynes--Cummings model, which can be used to realize Greenberger--Horne--Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled state (Zheng S B 2001 {\it Phys. Rev. Lett.} {\bf 87} 230404). Our results show that the W-type entangled states cannot be generated based on the model. The dependences of entanglement on Rabi frequency $\lambda$ and dipole--dipole coupling strength ${\it \Omega}$ are given. It is found that there exists the quantum phase transition when $\lambda={\it \Omega}$. For typical experimental data, the critical temperature for pairwise entanglement is on the order of $10^{-6}$\,K. Based on these results, two strategies that overcome decoherence are proposed.