Off-resonant entanglement generation in a lossy cavity

We provide an exact and complete characterization of the entanglement dynamics of two qubits coupled to a common structured reservoir at zero temperature. We derive the conditions to maximize reservoir-induced entanglement for an initially factorized state of the two-qubit system. In particular, when the two qubits are placed inside a lossy cavity, we show that high values of entanglement can be obtained, even in the bad cavity limit, in the dispersive regime. Finally we show that, under certain conditions, the entanglement dynamics exhibits quantum beats and we explain their physical origin in terms of the interference between two different transitions coupling the dressed states of the system.