We discuss the generation of entangled states or 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 enta
ngled state. In addition to being conceptually simple, this scheme can be d
emonstrated with presently available technology. We describe how such a sta
te is generated through conditional dynamics, using quantum jump methods, i
ncluding both cavity damping and spontaneous emission decay, and evaluate t
he fidelity and relative entropy of entanglement of the generated state com
pared with the target entangled state. [S1050-2947(99)08303-1].