Macroscopic displaced thermal field as the entanglement catalyst
  We show that entanglement of multiple atoms can arise via resonant interaction with a displaced thermal field with a macroscopic photon-number. The cavity field acts as the catalyst, which is disentangled with the atomic system after the operation. Remarkably, the entanglement speed does not decrease as the average photon-number of the mixed thermal state increases. The atoms may evolve to a highly entangled state even when the photon-number of the cavity mode approaches infinity. 
Shi-Biao Zheng
quant-ph physics.optics