Entanglement generation and protection for two atoms in the presence of two parallel mirrors

We study, in the framework of open quantum systems, the entanglement generation of two atoms in between two parallel mirrors in a thermal bath of quantum scalar fields. We find that the presence of mirrors plays an important role in entanglement generation and protection. The entanglement dynamics is crucially dependent on the geometric configurations of the two-atom system with respect to the mirrors, and the ranges of temperature and interatomic separation within which entanglement can be generated are significantly changed compared with those in a free space. In particular, when the atomic transition wavelength is larger than twice the distance between the two mirrors, the atoms behave as if they were isolated from the environment and the entanglement can persist in the steady state if the atoms are initially entangled and no entanglement can be created if they are initially separable, no matter how the atoms are placed with respect to the mirrors and to each other. This is in sharp contrast to the fact that in a free space, steady-state entanglement is possible only when the two atoms are placed extremely close to each other, while in the presence of one mirror, it is possible when the two atoms placed extremely close to the mirror.