Tripartite entanglement in multimode cavity quantum electrodynamics

We numerically investigate the generation and dynamics of tripartite entanglement among qubits (quantum emitters or atoms) in multimode cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED). Our cQED architecture features three initially unentangled excited two-level quantum emitters confined within a triangle-shaped multimode optical cavity, which later become entangled due to a Jaynes-Cummings-like interaction. Using the tripartite negativity measure of entanglement and fidelity with respect to the genuine tripartite entangled state (Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state, to be precise), we analyze the impact of the number of cavity modes, qubit locations, and losses (spontaneous emission from qubits and photon leakage from the cavity mirrors) on the generated entanglement. Our key results include the presence of two kinds of retardation effects: one resulting from the time it takes for photons to propagate from one qubit to another, and the other to complete one round trip in the cavity. We observed these retardation effects only in multimode cavities, with the exciting possibility of controlling the collapse and revival patterns of tripartite entanglement by altering the qubit locations in the cavity. Furthermore, the impact of losses on the generated entanglement and the dependence of maximum entanglement on the total number of modes yield results that surpass those reported for single and two excitations. With recent advances in circuit quantum electrodynamics, these findings hold promise for the development of entanglement-based quantum networking protocols and quantum memories.