Concentration of Non-maximally Entangled States via Entanglement Swapping in Cavity QED

Using the highly detuned interaction between Λ-type three-level atoms and coherent optical fields in cavity QED, we can create a maximally entangled state between an atom and a cavity mode from a non-maximally entangled atomic state and a non-maximally entangled coherent state via entanglement swapping. The averaged output entanglement of the scheme is the product of the initial two non-maximal entanglements rather than the sum of them. The impact made by the spontaneous emission from the atomic excited levels has been canceled here, which makes the current protocol more feasible.