Quantum internet boosted - Quantum repeater successfully implemented using trapped ions
A functioning network node made with two single matter systems enabling entanglement creation with a photon at the standard frequency of the telecommunications network and entanglement swapping operations.
Funded by the European Union among others, the latest research « Telecom-Wavelength Quantum Repeater Node Based on a Trapped-Ion Processor » was recently published inPhysical Review Letters.
Quantum physicists led by Ben Lanyon at the University of Innsbruck have now succeeded in building a quantum repeater node for the standard wavelength of telecommunication networks and transmitted quantum information over tens of kilometres — a functioning network node made with two single matter systems enabling entanglement creation with a photon at the standard frequency of the telecommunications network and entanglement swapping operations.
The repeater node consists of two calcium ions captured in an ion trap within an optical resonator as well as single photon conversion to the telecom wavelength.
The scientists thus demonstrated the transfer of quantum information over a 50-kilometer-long optical fiber, with the quantum repeater placed exactly halfway between starting and end point.
The researchers were also able to calculate which improvements of this design would be necessary to make transmission over 800 kilometres possible which would allow to connect Innsbruck to Vienna.
Telecom-wavelength quantum repeater node based on a trapped-ion processor. V. Krutyanskiy, M. Canteri, M. Meraner, J. Bate, V. Krcmarsky, J. Schupp, N. Sangouard, and B. P. Lanyon. Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 213601 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.213601 [arXiv:2210.05418v2]
