Efficient generation of multipartite W state via quantum eraser

TL;DR

This paper proposes an efficient linear optical method using quantum erasure to generate large N-photon W states, which are crucial for quantum communication, with a success probability that decreases polynomially with photon number.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel linear optical scheme for generating N-photon W states via quantum erasure, improving efficiency and feasibility for larger photon numbers.

Findings

Success probability decreases polynomially with photon number

Feasible with current quantum photonics technologies

Potential to generate tens of photons in W states

Abstract

Entanglement among multiple particles is a keystone for not only fundamental research on quantum information but also various practical quantum information applications. In particular, W state has attracted a lot of attention due to the robustness against particle loss and the applications in multiparty quantum communication. However, it is challenging to generate photonic W state with large number of photons since N-photon W state requires superposition among N probability amplitudes. In this paper, we propose an efficient linear optical scheme to generate N-photon W state via quantum erasure. The success probability of our protocol polynomially decreases as the number of photons increase. We also discuss the experimental feasibility of our protocol, and anticipate that one can efficiently generate tens of photonic W state with our scheme using currently available quantum photonics technologies.