Repeat-until-success quantum repeaters

Abstract

We propose a repeat-until-success protocol to improve the performance of probabilistic quantum repeaters. Conventionally, these rely on passive static linear-optics elements and photodetectors to perform Bell-state measurements (BSMs) with a maximum success rate of 50%. This is a strong impediment for entanglement swapping between distant quantum memories. Every time a BSM fails, entanglement needs to be redistributed between the corresponding memories in the repeater link. The key ingredients of our scheme are repeatable BSMs. Under ideal conditions, these turn probabilistic quantum repeaters into deterministic ones. Under realistic conditions, our protocol too might fail. However, using additional threshold detectors now allows us to improve the entanglement generation rate by almost orders of magnitude, at a nominal distance of 1000 km, compared to schemes that rely on conventional BSMs. This improvement is sufficient to make the performance of our scheme comparable to the expected performance of some deterministic quantum repeaters.