We study the generation of entanglement between two distant qubits mediated
by the surface plasmons of a metallic waveguide. We show that a V-shaped
channel milled in a flat metallic surface is much more efficient for this
purpose than a metallic cylinder. The role of the misalignments of the dipole
moments of the qubits, an aspect of great importance for experimental
implementations, is also studied. A careful analysis of the quantum-dynamics of
the system by means of a master equation shows that two-qubit entanglement
generation is essentially due to the dissipative part of the effective
qubit-qubit coupling provided by the surface plasmons. The influence of a
coherent external pumping, needed to achieve a steady state entanglement, is
discussed. Finally, we pay attention to the question of how to get information
experimentally on the degree of entanglement achieved in the system.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figure
