Future quantum networks offer the potential for new communication and computation applications. These quantum networks will undoubtedly require the routing of quantum information between distant parties. In order to reliably achieve the transmission of entangled states over such a network, some entanglement distillation protocol can be implemented on an ensemble of entangled photon pairs. Here, we demonstrate such a protocol by recovering quantum information using local filters on each photon of a polarization-entangled state in the presence of a common source of decoherence in the telecom fiber infrastructure, polarization mode dispersion (PMD).
Future quantum networks offer the potential for new communication and computation applications. These quantum networks will undoubtedly require the routing of quantum information between distant parties. In order to reliably achieve the transmission of entangled states over such a network, some entanglement distillation protocol can be implemented on an ensemble of entangled photon pairs. Here, we demonstrate such a protocol by recovering quantum information using local filters on each photon of a polarization-entangled state in the presence of a common source of decoherence in the telecom fiber infrastructure, polarization mode dispersion (PMD).
Quantum entanglement shared by remote network nodes serves as a valuable resource for promising applications in distributed computing, cryptography, and sensing. However, distributing high-quality entanglement via fiber-optic routes could be challenging due to the various decoherence mechanisms in fibers. In particular, one of the primary polarization decoherence mechanisms in optical fibers is polarization mode dispersion (PMD), which is the distortion of optical pulses by randomly varying birefringences. To mitigate the effect of decoherence in entangled particles, quantum entanglement distillation (QED) algorithms have been proposed. One particular class, the recurrence QED algorithms, stands out because it has relatively relaxed requirements both on the size of the quantum circuits involved and on the initial quality of entanglement between particles. However, because the number of required particles grows exponentially with the number of distillation rounds, an efficient recurrence algorithm needs to converge quickly. We present a recurrence QED algorithm designed for photonic qubit pairs affected by PMD-degraded channels. Our proposed algorithm achieves the optimal fidelity as well as the optimal success probability (conditioned on the fact that optimal fidelity is achieved) in every round of distillation. The attainment of the maximal fidelity improves the convergence speed of fidelity with respect to the number of distillation rounds from linear to quadratic and, hence, significantly reduces the number of rounds. Combined with the fact that the optimal success probability is achieved, the proposed algorithm provides an efficient method to distribute entangled states with a high fidelity via optical fibers.
Quantum entanglement shared by remote network nodes serves as a valuable resource for promising applications in distributed computing, cryptography, and sensing. However, distributing entanglement with high-quality via fiber optic routes could be challenging due to the various decoherence mechanisms in fibers. In particular, one of the primary polarization decoherence mechanisms in optical fibers is polarization mode dispersion (PMD), which is the distortion of optical pulses by randomly varying birefringences in the system. To mitigate the effect of decoherence in entangled particles, quantum entanglement distillation (QED) algorithms have been proposed. One particular class, the recurrence QED algorithms, stands out because it has relatively relaxed requirements on both the size of the quantum circuits involved and on the initial quality of entanglement in particles. However, because the number of particles required grows exponentially with the number of rounds of distillation, an efficient recurrence algorithm needs to converge quickly. We present a recurrence QED algorithm designed for photonic qubit pairs affected by PMD-degraded channels. Our proposed algorithm achieves the optimal fidelity as well as the optimal success probability (conditional on the optimal fidelity being achieved) in every round of distillation. The attainment of optimal fidelity improves the convergence speed of fidelity with respect to the rounds of distillation from linear to quadratic, and hence significantly reduces the number of distillation rounds. Combined with the fact that the optimal success probability is achieved, the proposed algorithm provides an efficient method to distribute entangled states with high fidelity via optic fibers.
Abstract Quantum networks entangle remote nodes by distributing quantum states, which inevitably suffer from decoherence while traversing quantum channels. Pertinent decoherence mechanisms govern the reach, quality, and rate of distributed entanglement. Hence recognizing, understanding, and modeling those mechanisms is a crucial step in building quantum networks. Here, we study real-life fiber-optic quantum channels that partially filter individual modes of transmitted polarization-entangled states and are capable of introducing dephasing. First, we theoretically model and experimentally demonstrate the combined effect of two independent and arbitrarily oriented polarization-dependent loss elements experienced by each photon of an entangled photon pair. Then, we showcase the compensation of lost entanglement by properly adjusting the channels’ properties and discuss the resulting tradeoff between the entanglement quality and rate. Our results provide insights into the robustness of fiber-optic quantum channels, thus taking an important step toward the realization of quantum networks.
Quantum networks scale the advantages of quantum communication protocols to more than just two distant users. Here we present a fully connected quantum network architecture in which a single entangled photon source distributes quantum states to a multitude of users. Our network architecture thus minimizes the resources required of each user without sacrificing security or functionality. As no adaptations of the source are required to add users, the network can readily be scaled to a large number of clients, whereby no trust in the provider of the quantum source is required. Unlike previous attempts at multi-user networks, which have been based on active components, and thus limited to some duty cycle, our implementation is fully passive and thus provides the potential for unprecedented quantum communication speeds. We experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of our approach using a single source of bi-partite polarization entanglement which is multiplexed into 12 wavelength channels to distribute 6 states between 4 users in a fully connected graph using only 1 fiber and polarization analysis module per user. We then discuss practical usage scenarios to demonstrate the advantage of some of the salient features of our network topology. These include adaptations/hardware implementations that are more favorable for local area networks and those for long distance intercity links. Our implementation consisted of a single Type 0 MgO:PPLN crystal pumped bidirectionally in a Sagnac interferometer to produce polarization entangled photon pairs with an ≈ 60 nm bandwidth. These pair wise entangled photons were split into 12 different wavelength channels corresponding to 6 correlated wavelength pairs. Each of the 4 users in our demonstration received 3 wavelength channels multiplexed together via a solitary single mode fiber. Each user had just one detector unit that they used to simultaneously measure all input channels. We exploited small time delays between different channels to isolate the relevant signal from noise. We measured the quality of entanglement between each channel pair simultaneously and calculated the effective secure key rate using the E91 protocol. Our experiment showed the effectiveness of our network topology and its scalability against noise, number of users and losses. Further experiments are underway to increase the number of clients and improve the scalability of the topology. Also, we plan to demonstrate distributed computation tasks like secure auctions, Byzantine fault tolerance, and asynchronous reference frame agreement are feasible using our network architecture.
Quantum networks require robust quantum channels for fast and reliable entanglement distribution over long distances. As quantum communication technology matures, it moves towards utilizing actual fibers and free-space optical channels; hence, there is a growing need for physical models describing decoherence. The primary challenge is to concisely account for numerous elements distributed along a lengthy optical path. We approach this by starting with an analytical model of a channel with just two lumped elements, one representing decoherence and the other representing mode filtering. Interestingly, we find that, while the order and relative orientation of the two elements produce a wealth of different biphoton states, the amount of entanglement in all those states is exactly the same. Then, we conduct experiments that implement this channel and verify our analytical findings. Finally, we expand our analysis to the most general fiber polarization channel, comprising a statistically significant number of arbitrarily oriented elements. We show that, over an ample range of parameters, our two-element analytical model is quite accurate in describing the fiber channel, which makes it an effective tool for gaining insights into channel decoherence.