Two-dimensional quantum repeaters

Abstract

The endeavour to develop quantum networks gave rise to a rapidly developing field with far reaching applications such as secure communication and the realisation of distributed computing tasks. This ultimately calls for the creation of flexible multi-user structures that allow for quantum communication between arbitrary pairs of parties in the network and facilitate also multi-user applications. To address this challenge, we propose a 2D quantum repeater architecture to establish long-distance entanglement shared between multiple communication partners in the presence of channel noise and imperfect local control operations. The scheme is based on the creation of self-similar multi-qubit entanglement structures at growing scale, where variants of entanglement swapping and multi-party entanglement purification are combined to create high fidelity entangled states. We show how such networks can be implemented using trapped ions in cavities.