Atom-photon entanglement generation and distribution

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.