Entanglement Swapping with Integrated Narrowband Photon Sources for Quantum Repeaters

Abstract

Promising implementations of first generation quantum repeaters are predicted to require atomic-based quantum memory systems interfaced with photonic sources. Integrated photonics provides a promising solution for fibre-based, field-deployed operation of quantum repeaters, however many leading quantum memory platforms require narrow-bandwidth photons that are challenging to generate with integrated photonics. Narrowband photons also present significant technical challenges when implementing entanglement-swapping, particularly with regards to systems-level stabilisation. This work addresses some of these fundamental and technical challenges, by demonstrating entanglement-swapping using state-of-the-art integrated photon sources with bandwidths compatible with multiple atomic-based quantum memory platforms. We obtained a background-subtracted (net) HOM visibility of 0.99$\,\pm\,$0.01, showing high photon indistinguishability and purity, with a net swapped state visibility of $\mathcal{V}$=0.88$\,\pm\,$0.06 demonstrating that the final entanglement would be sufficient to violate a Bell inequality. The experiment used independent pump lasers for each photon pair source, with highly different frequencies to mimic entanglement swapping between different repeater nodes or platforms. Phase and frequency stabilisation spanning 1.6 THz was achieved using all-fibre, commercially-available components. These results address important challenges in implementing field-deployed quantum repeaters, from the integrated photonic solutions for narrowband photon pairs, to systems-level stabilisation between independent quantum repeater nodes.