In this paper, we consider a linear quantum network composed of two distantly separated cavities that are connected via a one-way optical field. When one of the cavities is damped and the other undamped, the overall cavity state obtains a large amount of entanglement in its quadratures. This entanglement, however, immediately decays and vanishes in a finite time. That is, entanglement sudden death occurs. We show that the direct measurement feedback method proposed by Wiseman can avoid this entanglement sudden death, and, further, enhance the entanglement. It is also shown that the entangled state under feedback control is robust against signal loss in a realistic detector, indicating the reliability of the proposed direct feedback method in practical situations.

• Received 29 June 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.78.042339