Observation of atom-photon entanglement

A single /sup 87/Rb atom into an optical dipole trap is loaded from a magneto optical trap. To generate entanglement between the trapped atom and an emitted photon, the atom is excited via an optical /spl phi/-pulse to the | F' = 0, m/sub F'/ = 0} state. Because of conservation of angular momentum, the polarization of the spontaneously emitted photon is entangled with the final Zeeman state of the atom.