All-Optical Entanglement Swapping.

Abstract

Entanglement swapping, which is a core component of quantum network and an important platform for testing the foundation of quantum mechanics, can enable the entangling of two independent particles without direct interaction both in discrete variable and continuous variable systems. Conventionally, the realization of entanglement swapping relies on the Bell-state measurement. In particular, for entanglement swapping in continuous variable regime, such Bell-state measurement involves the optic-electro and electro-optic conversion, which limits the applications of the entanglement swapping for constructing broadband quantum network. In this Letter, we propose and demonstrate a measurement-free all-optical entanglement swapping. In our scheme, a high-gain parametric amplifier based on the four-wave mixing process is exploited to realize the function of Bell-state measurement without detection, which avoids the introduction of the optic-electro and electro-optic conversion. Our results provide an all-optical paradigm for implementing entanglement swapping and pave the way to construct a measurement-free all-optical broadband quantum network.