Tunable thermal entanglement in an effective spin-star system using coupled microcavities

We theoretically explore the possibility of realizing controllable thermal entanglement of effective spins in a four-qubit anisotropic Heisenberg XXZ coupling spin-star system constructed by coupled microcavities. We analyse the dependence of thermal entanglement in this system on temperature, inhomogeneity of the magnetic field, and anisotropy, which can be readily tuned via the external laser fields. The peculiar characteristic and the full controllability of the thermal entanglement are demonstrated to be useful for quantum information processing.