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 tabletop. Here we propose and report a high-efficiency and long-distance entanglement purification using only one pair of hyperentangled state. 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 inequality of polarization entanglement arises from 1.829 to 2.128. Moreover, by using one pair of hyperentanglement and deterministic controlled-NOT gates, the total purification efficiency can be estimated as 6.6×10^{3} times than the experiment using two pairs of entangled states with spontaneous parametric down-conversion sources. Our results offer the potential to be implemented as part of a full quantum repeater and large-scale quantum network.
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 tabletop. Here we propose and report a high-efficiency and long-distance entanglement purification using only one pair of hyperentangled state. 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 inequality of polarization entanglement arises from 1.829 to 2.128. Moreover, by using one pair of hyperentanglement and deterministic controlled-NOT gates, the total purification efficiency can be estimated as 6.6×10^{3} times than the experiment using two pairs of entangled states with spontaneous parametric down-conversion sources. Our results offer the potential to be implemented as part of a full quantum repeater and large-scale quantum network.
Entanglement purification is to distill high-quality entanglement from low-quality entanglement. Entanglement purification determines the efficiency and communication rates and plays a key role in quantum repeaters and long-distance quantum communications. Existing entanglement purification protocols and proof of principle experiments usually choose two identical input pairs. They are limited to focus on the successful purification case to obtain high-quality entangled states and discard the remained items if the purification fails. Recent entanglement purification theory [Opt. Express 28, 2291 (2020)OPEXFF1094-408710.1364/OE.383499] for arbitrary nonidentical input mixed states indicated that the discarded items may have residual entanglement and can be reused to increase the yield of entanglement purification, while the successful purification may not obtain a high-quality entangled state. In this Letter, using hyperentanglement, we design and experimentally demonstrate an entanglement purification protocol with nonidentical input mixed states. For the first time, we experimentally confirm the existence of residual entanglement in different error models. Furthermore, we illustrate that successful purification may decrease the fidelity of purified entangled states. We also demonstrate the approach of optimal entanglement purification. Our proof of principle results have potential applications in future high-efficiency and long-distance quantum communication.
Multipartite entanglement plays an important role in controlled quantum teleportation, quantum secret sharing, quantum metrology and some other important quantum information branches. However, the maximally multipartite entangled state will degrade into the mixed state because of the noise. We present an efficient multipartite entanglement purification protocol (EPP) which can distill the high quality entangled states from low quality entangled states for N-photon systems in a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state in only linear optics. After performing the protocol, the spatial-mode entanglement is used to purify the polarization entanglement and one pair of high quality polarization entangled state will be obtained. This EPP has several advantages. Firstly, with the same purification success probability, this EPP only requires one pair of multipartite GHZ state, while existing EPPs usually require two pairs of multipartite GHZ state. Secondly, if consider the practical transmission and detector efficiency, this EPP may be extremely useful for the ratio of purification efficiency is increased rapidly with both the number of photons and the transmission distance. Thirdly, this protocol requires linear optics and does not add additional measurement operations, so that it is feasible for experiment. All these advantages will make this protocol have potential application for future quantum information processing.
Quantum repeaters are employed in quantum communication to overcome the long-distance transmission loss of quantum states. The quantum repeater is based on various key technologies, including quantum entanglement swapping, quantum memory, and entanglement purification. In particular, quantum purification can distil high-quality entanglement from the degraded entangled states which is propagating through noisy quantum communication channels. Although previous reports have demonstrated on-chip entanglement swapping and teleportation through the less-noisy channel, current entanglement purification experiments still rely on off-chip discrete devices, leading to limitations on scalability, stability, and controllability. In this paper, for the first time, we demonstrated chip-to-chip hyperentanglement distribution and quantum entanglement purification based on integrated silicon chips. Path-encoded high-dimensional entangled photon pairs are produced on the chip, converted to fibre-based polarization-spatial hyperentanglement by grating couplers, distributed to the receiver silicon chip, and finally purified by consuming the spatial degree of freedom. Our purification scheme by integrated photonics finished the last puzzle of on-chip quantum repeater, which will promote the realization of the quantum repeater based on integrated photonics.
Entanglement purification is a powerful method to distill the high-quality entanglement from low-quality entanglement. In the paper, we propose an efficient two-step entanglement purification protocol (EPP) for the polarization entanglement by using only one copy of two-photon hyperentangled state in polarization, spatial-mode, and time-bin DOFs. We suppose that the entanglement in all DOFs suffer from channel noise. In two purification steps, the parties can reduce the bit-flip error and phase-flip error in polarization DOF by consuming the imperfect entanglement in the spatial-mode and time-bin DOFs, respectively. This EPP effectively reduces the consumption of entanglement pairs and the experimental difficulty. Moreover, if consider the practical photon transmission and detector efficiencies, our EPP has much higher purification efficiency than previous recurrence EPPs. Meanwhile, when one or two purification steps fail, the distilled mixed state may have residual entanglement. Taking use of the residual entanglement, the parties may still distill higher-quality polarization entanglement. Even if not, they can still reuse the residual entanglement in the next purification round. The existence of residual entanglement benefits for increasing the yield of the EPP. All the above advantages make our EPP have potential application in future quantum information processing.
Abstract Quantum repeaters are employed in quantum communication to overcome the long-distance transmission loss of quantum states. The quantum repeater is based on various key technologies, including quantum entanglement swapping, quantum memory, and entanglement purification. In particular, quantum purification can distil high-quality entanglement from the degraded entangled states which is propagating through noisy quantum communication channels. Although previous reports have demonstrated on-chip entanglement swapping and teleportation through the less-noisy channel, current entanglement purification experiments still rely on off-chip discrete devices, leading to limitations on scalability, stability and controllability. In this paper, for the first time, we demonstrated chip-to-chip hyperentanglment distribution and quantum entanglement purification based on integrated silicon chips. Path-encoded high-dimensional entangled photon pairs are produced on the chip, converted to fibre-based polarization-spatial hyperentanglement by grating couplers, distributed to the receiver silicon chip, and finally purified by consuming the spatial degree of freedom. Our purification scheme by integrated photonics finished the important puzzle of on-chip quantum repeater, which will promote the realization of the quantum repeater based on integrated photonics.
Hyperentanglement, as a high-dimensional quantum entanglement phenomenon with multiple degrees of freedom, plays a critical role in quantum communication, quantum computing, and high-dimensional quantum state manipulation. Unlike entangled states in a single degree of freedom, hyperentangled states establish entanglement relationships simultaneously in multiple degrees of freedom, such as polarization, path, and orbital angular momentum. Through entanglement-based distribution techniques, high-dimensional quantum information networks can be constructed. On this basis, a fully connected quantum network with hyperentanglement is constructed in this work, and the polarization and time-bin degree-of-freedom hyperentanglement is realized through the process of second-harmonic generation and spontaneous parametric down-conversion in periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide cascades. The hyperentangled state is then multiplexed into a single-mode fiber by using dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology for transmission to terminal users. The quality of the entangled states in the two degrees of freedom is characterized using Franson-type interference and photon-pair coincidence measurement techniques. Polarization entangled states are subjected to quantum state tomography, and entanglement distribution technology is employed to achieve long-distance distribution and quantum key transmission within the network. Experimental results show that the two-photon interference visibility of both polarization and time-bin entanglement is greater than 95%, demonstrating the high quality of the hyperentanglement in the network. After 100-km-entanglement distribution, the fidelity of the quantum states in both degrees of freedom remains above 88%, indicating the effectiveness of long-distance entanglement distribution in this network. Additionally, it is verified that this network supports the distribution of quantum keys over a distance of more than 50 km between users. These results confirm the feasibility of a fully connected quantum network with hyperentanglement and demonstrate the potential for constructing large-scale metropolitan networks by using hyperentanglement. As a higher-dimensional entanglement, hyperentangled states can significantly enhance the capacity and efficiency of quantum information processing. Although the quantum communication is still in its early stages of development, achieving stable storage and transmission of entangled states in large-scale metropolitan networks remains a great challenge. By utilizing the frequency conversion properties and high integration characteristics of the periodically poled lithium niobate waveguides, the three-user hyperentangled quantum network constructed in this work provides a new solution for developing the large-scale metropolitan networks with high-dimensional quantum information networks. It is expected to provide a new platform for quantum tasks such as superdense coding and quantum teleportation.