An integrated quantum repeater at telecom wavelength with single atoms in optical fiber cavities

TL;DR

This paper proposes a practical quantum repeater design using single atoms in optical fiber cavities, enabling efficient entanglement distribution at telecom wavelengths without wavelength conversion, suitable for long-distance quantum networks.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, integrated quantum repeater scheme with direct telecom wavelength entanglement and efficient atom-atom gates, avoiding wavelength conversion and leveraging existing fiber cavity technology.

Findings

Achieves high-efficiency entanglement between remote quantum memories.

Demonstrates the scheme outperforms direct entanglement over large distances.

Utilizes realistic parameters with rubidium atoms and fiber cavities.

Abstract

Quantum repeaters promise to enable quantum networks over global distances by circumventing the exponential decrease in success probability inherent in direct photon transmission. We propose a realistic, functionally integrated quantum repeater implementation based on single atoms in optical cavities. Entanglement is directly generated between the single-atom quantum memory and a photon at telecom wavelength. The latter is collected with high efficiency and adjustable temporal and spectral properties into a spatially well-defined cavity mode. It is heralded by a near-infrared photon emitted from a second, orthogonal cavity. Entanglement between two remote quantum memories can be generated via an optical Bell-state measurement, while we propose entanglement swapping based on a highly efficient, cavity-assisted atom-atom gate. Our quantum repeater scheme eliminates any requirement for wavelength conversion such that only a single system is needed at each node. We investigate a particular implementation with rubidium and realistic parameters for Fabry-Perot cavities based on CO$_2$ laser-machined optical fibers. We show that the scheme enables the implementation of a rather simple quantum repeater that outperforms direct entanglement generation over large distances and does not require any improvements in technology beyond the state of the art.