Coherent Operation of the Collective Atomic Modes in the Coupled Cavity System

We study the dynamics of a coupled cavity system composed of three cavities, and propose a scheme for the coherent manipulation of two collective atomic modes by a control atom. In the scheme, the control atom and two atomic ensembles interact with the local cavity mode, while the control atom is externally driven by a laser field. We show that under certain conditions, the dynamics of the whole system are reduced to an effective coherent coupling between the control atom and two collective atomic modes, while the cavity fields are only virtually excited. We also study the dynamics of the entanglement generation of the two distant collective atomic modes. The scheme provides a potential application for quantum-state engineering and quantum control.