A fast and robust approach to long-distance quantum communication with atomic ensembles

Quantum repeaters create long-distance entanglement between quantum systems while overcoming difficulties such as the attenuation of single photons in a fiber. Recently, an implementation of a repeater protocol based on single qubits in atomic ensembles and linear optics has been proposed [Nature 414, 413 (2001)]. Motivated by rapid experimental progress towards implementing that protocol, here we develop a more efficient scheme compatible with active purification of arbitrary errors. Using similar resources as the earlier protocol, our approach intrinsically purifies leakage out of the logical subspace and all errors within the logical subspace, leading to greatly improved performance in the presence of experimental inefficiencies. Our analysis indicates that our scheme could generate approximately one pair per 3 minutes over 1280 km distance with fidelity (F>78%) sufficient to violate Bell's inequality.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables (Two appendixes are added to justify two claims used in the maintext.

Optimal approach to quantum communication using dynamic programming

Reliable preparation of entanglement between distant systems is an outstanding problem in quantum information science and quantum communication. In practice, this has to be accomplished via noisy channels (such as optical fibers) that generally result in exponential attenuation of quantum signals at large distances. A special class of quantum error correction protocols--quantum repeater protocols--can be used to overcome such losses. In this work, we introduce a method for systematically optimizing existing protocols and developing new, more efficient protocols. Our approach makes use of a dynamic programming-based searching algorithm, the complexity of which scales only polynomially with the communication distance, letting us efficiently determine near-optimal solutions. We find significant improvements in both the speed and the final state fidelity for preparing long distance entangled states.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Towards experimental entanglement connection with atomic ensembles in the single excitation regime

We present a protocol for performing entanglement connection between pairs of atomic ensembles in the single excitation regime. Two pairs are prepared in an asynchronous fashion and then connected via a Bell measurement. The resulting state of the two remaining ensembles is mapped to photonic modes and a reduced density matrix is then reconstructed. Our observations confirm for the first time the creation of coherence between atomic systems that never interacted, a first step towards entanglement connection, a critical requirement for quantum networking and long distance quantum communications

High-sensitivity diamond magnetometer with nanoscale resolution

We present a novel approach to the detection of weak magnetic fields that takes advantage of recently developed techniques for the coherent control of solid-state electron spin quantum bits. Specifically, we investigate a magnetic sensor based on Nitrogen-Vacancy centers in room-temperature diamond. We discuss two important applications of this technique: a nanoscale magnetometer that could potentially detect precession of single nuclear spins and an optical magnetic field imager combining spatial resolution ranging from micrometers to millimeters with a sensitivity approaching few femtotesla/Hz$^{1/2}$.Comment: 29 pages, 4 figure

Nanoscale magnetic sensing using spin qubits in diamond

The ability to sense nanotelsa magnetic fields with nanoscale spatial resolution is an outstanding technical challenge relevant to the physical and biological sciences. For example, detection of such weak localized fields will enable sensing of magnetic resonance signals from individual electron or nuclear spins in complex biological molecules and the readout of classical or quantum bits of information encoded in an electron or nuclear spin memory. Here we present a novel approach to nanoscale magnetic sensing based on coherent control of an individual electronic spin contained in the Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) center in diamond. At room temperature, using an ultra-pure diamond sample, we achieve shot-noise-limited detection of 3 nanotesla magnetic fields oscillating at kHz frequencies after 100 seconds of signal averaging. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrate nanoscale resolution using a diamond nanocrystal of 30 nm diameter for which we achieve a sensitivity of 0.5 microtesla / Hz[superscript 1/2].David and Lucile Packard FoundationMultidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI)Defense Advanced Projects Research AgencyNational Science Foundatio