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Advanced materials research

Entanglement Purification for Quantum Repeater

Zhen Zhu Zhou, Wei He, Chun Dan Zhu, Ying Wang

Published Apr 10, 2013• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study various kinds of entanglement purification schemes for quantum repeater distributed maximally entangled pairs over long distances. We then investigate two protocols in detail, and present that they have the same essence in principle but operated by different means. In order to compare the two different protocols, we introduce a parameter represented the admixture degree of system to show the optimal protocol that is obtainable. Finally, we present that the efficiency of purification protocol relate to the fidelity of the initial states of the system. For the initial state of the system with high fidelity entanglement, we can obtain the required particles after a few iterations.

DOI
10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.679.95

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We study various kinds of entanglement purification schemes for quantum repeater distributed maximally entangled pairs over long distances. We then investigate two protocols in detail, and present that they have the same essence in principle but operated by different means. In order to compare the two different protocols, we introduce a parameter represented the admixture degree of system to show the optimal protocol that is obtainable. Finally, we present that the efficiency of purification protocol relate to the fidelity of the initial states of the system. For the initial state of the system with high fidelity entanglement, we can obtain the required particles after a few iterations.
We present an efficient entanglement purification protocol (EPP) with controlled-not (CNOT) gates and linear optics. With the CNOT gates, our EPP can reach a higher fidelity than the conventional one. Moreover, it does not require the fidelity of the initial mixed state to satisfy F > 1/2. If the initial state is not entangled, it still can be purified. With the linear optics, this protocol can get pure maximally entangled pairs with some probabilities. Meanwhile, it can be used to purify the entanglement between the atomic ensembles in distant locations. This protocol may be useful in long-distance quantum communication.
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.
Entanglement purification is an indispensable ingredient in extended quantum communication networks and usually determines the efficiency and communication rate of quantum communication protocols. Different from all existing entanglement purification protocols (EPPs) where two or more copies of low quality mixed entangled states are selected from the same ensemble, here we describe a general and optimal EPP for arbitrary initial mixed states from different ensembles. We show that the successful operation of EPP may not obtain a higher fidelity mixed state, while the discarded source pair, which is usually regarded as a failure in existing EPPs, may have residual entanglement and can be reused to increase the yield of entanglement purification. We give the criterions of both the successful purification to obtain a higher fidelity mixed state and the existence of residual entanglement. Moreover, we reveal that entanglement purification procedure causes some entanglement loss. Finally, we provide an optimal approach to reduce the entanglement loss. This approach can also be used to increase the yield of entanglement purification. Our EPP may have potential application in long-distance quantum communications.
Bipartite entanglement purification is the conversion of copies of weakly entangled pairs shared between two separated parties into a smaller number of strongly entangled shared pairs using only local operations and classical communication. Choosing between different entanglement purification protocols generally involves weighing up a trade-off between the ratio of strongly entangled pairs produced to weakly entangled pairs consumed, which we call the rate of the protocol, and the degree of the entanglement of the strongly entangled pairs, typically measured by the fidelity of those pairs to maximally entangled states. By randomly choosing a protocol according to a probability distribution over a list of protocols for each pair we want to produce, we can achieve rates and fidelities not achieved by any of the original protocols. Here, we show how to choose this distribution to maximize the rate at which we produce qubit pairs with a given fidelity to a Bell state or, equivalently, to maximize the fidelity to a Bell state of the qubit pairs produced at a given rate. We investigate both the asymptotic case, where the number of initial pairs goes to infinity, and the finite-size regime, where protocols are restricted to a finite number of weakly entangled pairs.
We study the use of entanglement purification for quantum communication over long distances. For distances much longer than the coherence length of a corresponding noisy quantum channel, the fidelity of transmission is usually so low that standard purification methods are not applicable. It is possible, however, to divide the channel into shorter segments that are purified separately and then connected by the method of entanglement swapping. This method can be much more efficient than schemes based on quantum error correction, as it makes explicit use of two-way classical communication. An important question is how the noise, introduced by imperfect local operations (that constitute the protocols of purification and the entanglement swapping), accumulates in such a compound channel, and how it can be kept below a certain noise level. To treat this problem, we first study the applicability and the efficiency of entanglement purification protocols in the situation of imperfect local operations. We then present a scheme that allows entanglement purification over arbitrary long channels and tolerates errors on the percent level. It requires a polynomial overhead in time, and an overhead in local resources that grows only logarithmically with the length of the channel.
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.