We discuss the generation of entangled states of two two-level atoms inside an optical resonator. When the cavity decay is continuously monitored, the absence of photon counts is associated with the presence of an atomic entangled state. In addition to being conceptually simple, this scheme can be demonstrated with presently available technology. We describe how such a state is generated through conditional dynamics, using quantum jump methods, including both cavity damping and spontaneous emission decay, and evaluate the fidelity and relative entropy of entanglement of the generated state compared with the target entangled state.

• Received 14 September 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.59.2468