We extend an earlier model by Law and Kimble [J. Mod. Opt.44, 2067 (1997)] for a cavity QED based single-photon-gun to atom-photon entanglement generation and distribution. We illuminate the importance of a small critical atom number on the fidelity of the proposed operation in the strong-coupling limit. Our result points to a promisingly high purity and efficiency using currently available cavity QED parameters, and sheds new light on constructing quantum computing and communication devices with trapped atoms, and high-$Q$ optical cavities.

• Received 21 August 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.69.042316