This paper studies the quantum repeater in quantum information communication. We propose to introduce the photon buffer mechanism for storing photons, which uses fibre delay loops as photon memories and a programmable 1×N switcher for distributing photon delay time. Meanwhile, we also consider entanglement purification and entanglement swapping restoration at an entanglement purification or entanglement swapping failure and introduce a protection link mechanism that allows the photonic quantum repeater of a broken connection to initiate a connection restoration process.
This paper studies the quantum repeater in quantum information communication. We propose to introduce the photon buffer mechanism for storing photons, which uses fibre delay loops as photon memories and a programmable 1×N switcher for distributing photon delay time. Meanwhile, we also consider entanglement purification and entanglement swapping restoration at an entanglement purification or entanglement swapping failure and introduce a protection link mechanism that allows the photonic quantum repeater of a broken connection to initiate a connection restoration process.
Quantum repeater networks that allow long-distance entanglement distribution will be the backbone of distributed quantum information processing. In this paper we explore entanglement distribution using quantum repeaters with optimized buffer time, equipped with noisy quantum memories and performing imperfect entanglement purification and swapping. We observe that increasing the number of memories on end nodes leads to a higher entanglement distribution rate per memory and higher probability of high-fidelity entanglement distribution, at least for the case with perfect operations. When imperfect operations are considered, however, we make the surprising observation that the permemory entanglement rate decreases with increasing number of memories. Our results suggest that building quantum repeaters that perform well under realistic conditions requires careful modeling and design that takes into consideration the operations and resources that are finite and imperfect.
We discuss a long-distance quantum communication system based on entangled photon pairs, which apply entanglement as its fundamental resource. For distances longer than the coherence length of a counterpart noisy quantum channel, the fidelity of transmission is ordinarily so low that standard purification processes are not applicable. The quantum repeater stretches the length of the entangled photon pairs. And the high fidelity entanglement of photons between sender and receiver is obtained by entanglement purification and entanglement swapping. We compare the nested repeater with the common repeater and show that it outperforms the latter, which is built an EPR pair in less time.
Quantum communication is a groundbreaking technology that is driving the future of information transmission and communication technologies to a new paradigm. It relies on quantum entanglement to facilitate the transmission of quantum states between parties. Quantum repeaters are crucial for facilitating long-distance quantum communication. These quantum devices act as intermediaries between adjacent communication channel segments within a fragmented quantum network, allowing for entanglement swapping between the channel segments. This entanglement swapping process establishes entanglement links between the endpoints of adjacent segments, gradually creating a continuous entanglement connection over the entire length of the transmission channel. The established quantum link can be utilized for secure and efficient quantum communication between distant sender and receiver nodes. This study focuses on quantum entanglement purification, a protocol aimed at maintaining high fidelity entangled states above the operational threshold of the communication channel. This study investigates the optimal stage for executing the purification protocol and applies optimization schemes to evaluate various purification protocols. We use IBM Qiskit for circuit implementation and simulation. The results offer valuable insights into future approaches to implementing practical quantum repeaters and shed light on existing and anticipated challenges.
Quantum networks, integrating quantum communication, quantum metrology, and distributed quantum computing, could provide secure and efficient information transfer, high-resolution sensing, and an exponential speed-up in information processing. Deterministic entanglement distribution over long distances is a prerequisite for scalable quantum networks, enabling the utilization of device-independent quantum key distribution (DI-QKD) and quantum teleportation to achieve secure and efficient information transfer. However, the exponential photon loss in optical fibres prohibits efficient and deterministic entanglement distribution. Quantum repeaters, incorporating entanglement swapping and entanglement purification with quantum memories, offer the most promising means to overcome this limitation in fibre-based quantum networks. Despite numerous pioneering efforts toward realizing quantum repeaters, a critical bottleneck remains, as remote memory-memory entanglement suffers from decoherence more rapidly than it can be established and purified over long distances. We overcome this by developing long-lived trapped-ion memories, an efficient telecom interface, and a high-visibility single-photon entanglement protocol. This allows us to establish and maintain memory-memory entanglement over a 10 km fibre within the average entanglement establishment time for the same distance. As a direct application, we demonstrate metropolitan-scale DI-QKD, distilling 1,917 secret keys out of 4.05*10^5 Bell pairs over 10 km. We further report a positive key rate over 101 km in the asymptotic limit, extending the achievable distance by more than two orders of magnitude. Our work provides a critical building block for quantum repeaters and marks an important step toward scalable quantum networks.
Abstract: This chapter explores the engineering of quantum repeaters, a critical technology for enabling secure and scalable long-distance quantum communication. Quantum repeaters extend the range of quantum communication networks by preserving entanglement and mitigating signal loss over large distances. The chapter covers the key principles of entanglement swapping, quantum memory, and quantum error correction, which are essential for maintaining the integrity of quantum states. It also examines advanced repeater architectures, including multi-mode repeaters and entanglement purification techniques, to improve scalability and robustness. Case studies highlight real-world implementations of quantum repeaters in quantum key distribution (QKD) networks, demonstrating their role in achieving secure global communication. Keywords: quantum repeaters, long-distance quantum communication, entanglement swapping, quantum memory, quantum error correction, entanglement purification, multi-mode repeaters, quantum key distribution, QKD, scalable quantum networks, secure communication.
A scheme of long-distance quantum communication system based on entangled photon pairs is presented,which utilize entanglement as its essential resource.This entanglement enables phenomena such as quantum teleportation and perfectly secure quantum communication.The quantum repeater extends the length of the entangled photon pairs with high fidelity,the entanglement of photons between sender and receiver is built by entanglement swapping and entanglement purification.The quantum information is transferred by the principle of quantum teleportation.Performance analysis results show that the throughput quantum communication system of increases greatly with higher probabilities with which entanglement is built between sender's photons and receiver's photons.The transmitting distance of the quantum signal was determined by the series of the quantum repeater nodes.