Efficient entanglement distillation without quantum memory

Daniela Abdelkhalek, Mareike Syllwasschy, Nicolas J. Cerf, Jaromír Fiurášek and Roman Schnabel ()
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Daniela Abdelkhalek: Institut für Laserphysik, Universität Hamburg
Mareike Syllwasschy: Institut für Gravitationsphysik, Leibniz Universität Hannover and Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut)
Nicolas J. Cerf: Quantum Information and Communication, Ecole Polytechnique de Bruxelles, CP 165, Université libre de Bruxelles
Jaromír Fiurášek: Palacký University
Roman Schnabel: Institut für Laserphysik, Universität Hamburg

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Entanglement distribution between distant parties is an essential component to most quantum communication protocols. Unfortunately, decoherence effects such as phase noise in optical fibres are known to demolish entanglement. Iterative (multistep) entanglement distillation protocols have long been proposed to overcome decoherence, but their probabilistic nature makes them inefficient since the success probability decays exponentially with the number of steps. Quantum memories have been contemplated to make entanglement distillation practical, but suitable quantum memories are not realised to date. Here, we present the theory for an efficient iterative entanglement distillation protocol without quantum memories and provide a proof-of-principle experimental demonstration. The scheme is applied to phase-diffused two-mode-squeezed states and proven to distil entanglement for up to three iteration steps. The data are indistinguishable from those that an efficient scheme using quantum memories would produce. Since our protocol includes the final measurement it is particularly promising for enhancing continuous-variable quantum key distribution.

Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11720

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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11720

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