2001/05/22 by L.-M. Duan, Lu-Ming Duan, Mikhail Lukin +5 · 38 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/35106500
published as Nature 414, 413-418 (2001). · 2 tex files (Main text + Supplement), 4 figures
arxiv created 2001/05/22 · openalex publication_date 2001/11/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
Quantum communication holds a promise for absolutely secure transmission of secret messages and faithful transfer of unknown quantum states. Photonic channels appear to be very attractive for physical implementation of quantum communication. However, due to losses and decoherence in the channel, the communication fidelity decreases exponentially with the channel length. We describe a scheme that allows to implement robust quantum communication over long lossy channels. The scheme involves laser manipulation of atomic ensembles, beam splitters, and single-photon detectors with moderate efficiencies, and therefore well fits the status of the current experimental technology. We show that the communication efficiency scale polynomially with the channel length thereby facilitating scalability to very long distances.