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A theoretical investigation is carried out into the effect of spontaneously generated coherence on the Kerr nonlinearity of general three-level systems of ⌳, ladder, and V-shape types. It is found, with spontaneously generated coherence present, that the Kerr nonlinearity can be clearly enhanced. In the ⌳and ladder-type systems, the maximal Kerr nonlinearity increases and at the same time enters the electromagnetically induced transparency window as the spontaneously generated coherence intensifies. As for the V-type system, the absorption property is significantly modified and therefore enhanced Kerr nonlinearity without absorption occurs for certain probe detunings. We attribute the enhancement of Kerr nonlinearity mainly to the presence of an extra atomic coherence induced by the spontaneously generated coherence.

We propose a scheme to generate the entangled state of two Lambda-type three-level atoms trapped in distant cavities by using interference of polarized photons. Two possible spontaneous emission channels of each excited atom result in a coherent superposition of the states of two atoms. The subsequent detection of the different polarized photons reveals that both atoms are in different ground states, but an interference effect prevents us from distinguishing which atom is in which ground state; the atoms are thus entangled. In comparison with the original proposal of interference-induced entanglement [C. Cabrillo, J. Cirac, P. Garcia-Fernandez, and P. Zoller, Phys. Rev. A 59, 1025 (1999)]], in our scheme the weakly driven condition is not required, and the influence of atomic excitement and atomic recoil on the entanglement fidelity can be eliminated.

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