No Arabic abstract
We propose a hybrid (continuous-discrete variable) quantum repeater protocol for distribution of entanglement over long distances. Starting from entangled states created by means of single-photon detection, we show how entangled coherent state superpositions, also known as `Schrodinger cat states, can be generated by means of homodyne detection of light. We show that near-deterministic entanglement swapping with such states is possible using only linear optics and homodyne detectors, and we evaluate the performance of our protocol combining these elements.
Any practical realization of entanglement-based quantum communication must be intrinsically secure and able to span long distances avoiding the need of a straight line between the communicating parties. The violation of Bells inequality offers a method for the certification of quantum links without knowing the inner workings of the devices. Energy-time entanglement quantum communication satisfies all these requirements. However, currently there is a fundamental obstacle with the standard configuration adopted: an intrinsic geometrical loophole that can be exploited to break the security of the communication, in addition to other loopholes. Here we show the first experimental Bell violation with energy-time entanglement distributed over 1 km of optical fibers that is free of this geometrical loophole. This is achieved by adopting a new experimental design, and by using an actively stabilized fiber-based long interferometer. Our results represent an important step towards long-distance secure quantum communication in optical fibers.
We report the observation of entanglement between a single trapped atom and a single photon at remote locations. The degree of coherence of the entangled atom-photon pair is verified via appropriate local correlation measurements, after communicating the photon via an optical fiber link of 300 m length. In addition we measured the temporal evolution of the atomic density matrix after projecting the atom via a state measurement of the photon onto several well defined spin states. We find that the state of the single atom dephases on a timescale of 150 $mu$s, which represents an important step toward long-distance quantum networking with individual neutral atoms.
Quantum key distribution(QKD) is an important area in quantum information theory. Nowadays, there are many protocols such as BB84 protocol, Lo-Chaus protocol and GR10 protocol. They usually require legitimated parties have the ability to create particles, using a sifting procedures (BB84, GR10), or must destroy entangled states (Lo-Chau). In this paper, we give a QKD scheme which can recycle entangled states and need not to run sifting procedures. The protocol use teleportation and mutual unbiased bases of qudits. Moreover, The scheme can be modified to add a third party who assumes all the states creating procedures and so the communicated parties need not to create states. This is in fact an entanglement distribution protocol. Also, the protocol can be modified for distributing key over arbitrary long distance. We compare our protocol with the previous protocols and discuss the security of it by corresponding to BB84 protocol.
Most quantum system with short-ranged interactions show a fast decay of entanglement with the distance. In this Letter, we focus on the peculiarity of some systems to distribute entanglement between distant parties. Even in realistic models, like the spin-1 Heisenberg chain, sizable entanglement is present between arbitrarily distant particles. We show that long distance entanglement appears for values of the microscopic parameters which do not coincide with known quantum critical points, hence signaling a transition detected only by genuine quantum correlations.
High-quality long-distance entanglement is essential for both quantum communication and scalable quantum networks. Entanglement purification is to distill high-quality entanglement from low-quality entanglement in a noisy environment and it plays a key role in quantum repeaters. The previous significant entanglement purification experiments require two pairs of low-quality entangled states and were demonstrated in table-top. Here we propose and report a high-efficiency and long-distance entanglement purification using only one pair of hyperentangled states. We also demonstrate its practical application in entanglement-based quantum key distribution (QKD). One pair of polarization spatial-mode hyperentanglement was distributed over 11 km multicore fiber (noisy channel). After purification, the fidelity of polarization entanglement arises from 0.771 to 0.887 and the effective key rate in entanglement-based QKD increases from 0 to 0.332. The values of Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) inequality of polarization entanglement arises from 1.829 to 2.128. Moreover, by using one pair of hyperentanglement and deterministic controlled-NOT gate, the total purification efficiency can be estimated as 6.6x10^3 times than the experiment using two pairs of entangled states with spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) sources. Our results offer the potential to be implemented as part of a full quantum repeater and large scale quantum network.