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arXiv:2605.04546 · Physical Review Letters

Measurement-Device-Independent Entanglement Quantification in a Fully Connected Time-Bin Quantum Network

Lu Liu, Ling-Xuan Kong, Ze-Yang Lu, Xu-Jie Peng, Xiao-Xu Fang, He Lu

quant-phSubmitted May 6, 2026• Announced May 7, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Fully connected quantum networks enable scalable quantum communication, yet reliable entanglement characterization without trusting measurement devices remains challenging. Here we experimentally demonstrate measurement-device-independent (MDI) entanglement verification and quantification in a time-bin-encoded fully connected quantum network. Using a broadband periodically poled lithium niobate on insulator source combined with dense wavelength-division multiplexing, we distribute all six pairwise entangled links among four users over 20-km fiber channels, preserving high-fidelity entanglement without active stabilization of the long-distance fiber links. We show that conventional entanglement witnesses can fail under untrusted measurement conditions. By encoding trusted input states in the polarization degree of freedom of the same photons, we realize MDI measurements without ancillary photons or additional experimental resources. Both entanglement verification and quantification are obtained from the same measurement dataset. Our results establish a practical and scalable approach for reliable entanglement characterization in quantum networks.

Comments
18 pages, 14 figures

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