Search

Since its discovery, the quantum entanglement becomes a promising resource in quantum communication and computation. However, the entanglement is fragile due to the presence of noise in quantum channels. Entanglement purification is a powerful tool to distill high quality entangled states from the low quality entangled states. In this review, we present an overview of entanglement purification, including the basic entanglement purification theory, the entanglement purification protocols (EPPs) with linear optics, EPPs with cross-Kerr nonlinearities, hyperentanglement EPPs, deterministic EPPs, and measurement-based EPPs. We also review experimental progresses of EPPs in linear optics. Finally, we give the discussion on potential outlook for the future development of EPPs. This review may pave the way for practical implementations in future long-distance quantum communication and quantum network., 23 pages, 27 figures

We study the chiral feature in a system composed of one two-level emitter (TLE) and a one dimensional (1D) dimer chain of coupled resonators with the alternate single-photon energies. In the single-excitation subspace, this system not only possesses two energy bands with propagating states, but also possesses chiral bound states. The number of chiral bound states depends on the coupling forms between the TLE and the dimer chain. It is found that when the TLE is locally coupled to one resonator of the dimer chain, the bound-state that has mirror reflection symmetry is not a chiral one. When the TLE is nonlocally coupled to two adjacent resonators, three chiral bound states arise due to the mirror symmetry breaking. The chirality of these bound states can be tuned by changing the energy differences of single photon in the adjacent resonators, the coupling strengths and the transition energy of the TLE. The chirality behaviour of the ordinary two bound states outside the energy bands is quite different from the one of the emerging bound state inside the energy gap. The almost perfect chiral bound states can be achieved at certain parameters as a result of completely destructive interference., 7 pages, 4 postscript figures

Entanglement purification is to distill high-quality entangled states from low-quality entangled states. It is a key step in quantum repeaters, determines the efficiency and communication rates of quantum communication protocols, and is hence of central importance in long-distance communications and quantum networks. In this work, we report the first experimental demonstration of deterministic entanglement purification using polarization and spatial mode hyperentanglement. After purification, the fidelity of polarization entanglement arises from $0.268\pm0.002$ to $0.989\pm0.001$. Assisted with robust spatial mode entanglement, the total purification efficiency can be estimated as $10^{9}$ times that of the entanglement purification protocols using two copies of entangled states when one uses the spontaneous parametric down-conversion sources. Our work may have the potential to be implemented as a part of full repeater protocols.

We study the coherent transport of one or two photons in a 1D waveguide chirally coupled to a nonlinear resonator. Analytic solutions of the one-photon and two-photon scattering is derived. Although the resonator acts as a non-reciprocal phase shifter, light transmission is reciprocal at one-photon level. However, the forward and reverse transmitted probabilities for two photons incident from either the left side or the right side of the nonlinear resonator are nonreciprocal due to the energy redistribution of the two-photon bound state. Hence, the nonlinear resonator acts as an optical diode at two-photon level., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures

Multipartite entanglement plays an important role in controlled quantum teleportation, quantum secret sharing, quantum metrology and some other important quantum information branches. However, the maximally multipartite entangled state will degrade into the mixed state because of the noise. We present an efficient multipartite entanglement purification protocol (EPP) which can distill the high quality entangled states from low quality entangled states for N-photon systems in a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state in only linear optics. After performing the protocol, the spatial-mode entanglement is used to purify the polarization entanglement and one pair of high quality polarization entangled state will be obtained. This EPP has several advantages. Firstly, with the same purification success probability, this EPP only requires one pair of multipartite GHZ state, while existing EPPs usually require two pairs of multipartite GHZ state. Secondly, if consider the practical transmission and detector efficiency, this EPP may be extremely useful for the ratio of purification efficiency is increased rapidly with both the number of photons and the transmission distance. Thirdly, this protocol requires linear optics and does not add additional measurement operations, so that it is feasible for experiment. All these advantages will make this protocol have potential application for future quantum information processing., 9 pages, 5 figures

Entanglement purification is a powerful method to distill the high-quality entanglement from low-quality entanglement. In the paper, we propose an efficient two-step entanglement purification protocol (EPP) for the polarization entanglement by using only one copy of two-photon hyperentangled state in polarization, spatial-mode, and time-bin DOFs. We suppose that the entanglement in all DOFs suffer from channel noise. In two purification steps, the parties can reduce the bit-flip error and phase-flip error in polarization DOF by consuming the imperfect entanglement in the spatial-mode and time-bin DOFs, respectively. This EPP effectively reduces the consumption of entanglement pairs and the experimental difficulty. Moreover, if consider the practical photon transmission and detector efficiencies, our EPP has much higher purification efficiency than previous recurrence EPPs. Meanwhile, when one or two purification steps fail, the distilled mixed state may have residual entanglement. Taking use of the residual entanglement, the parties may still distill higher-quality polarization entanglement. Even if not, they can still reuse the residual entanglement in the next purification round. The existence of residual entanglement benefits for increasing the yield of the EPP. All the above advantages make our EPP have potential application in future quantum information processing., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures

Crystal-structure phase mapping is a core, long-standing challenge in materials science that requires identifying crystal structures, or mixtures thereof, in synthesized materials. Materials science experts excel at solving simple systems but cannot solve complex systems, creating a major bottleneck in high-throughput materials discovery. Herein we show how to automate crystal-structure phase mapping. We formulate phase mapping as an unsupervised pattern demixing problem and describe how to solve it using Deep Reasoning Networks (DRNets). DRNets combine deep learning with constraint reasoning for incorporating scientific prior knowledge and consequently require only a modest amount of (unlabeled) data. DRNets compensate for the limited data by exploiting and magnifying the rich prior knowledge about the thermodynamic rules governing the mixtures of crystals with constraint reasoning seamlessly integrated into neural network optimization. DRNets are designed with an interpretable latent space for encoding prior-knowledge domain constraints and seamlessly integrate constraint reasoning into neural network optimization. DRNets surpass previous approaches on crystal-structure phase mapping, unraveling the Bi-Cu-V oxide phase diagram, and aiding the discovery of solar-fuels materials.

In this paper, we investigate the phase sensitivities in two-path optical interferometry with asymmetric beam splitters. Here, we present the optimal conditions for the transmission ratio and the phase of the beam splitter to gain the highest sensitivities for a general class of non-classical states with parity symmetry. Additionally, we address the controversial question of whether the scheme with a combination of coherent state and photon-added or photon-subtracted squeezed vacuum state is better or worse than the most celebrated one using a combination of coherent state and squeezed vacuum state., Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures

"Device-independent" not only represents a relaxation of the security assumptions about the internal working of the quantum devices, but also can enhance the security of the quantum communication. In the paper, we put forward the first device-independent quantum secure direct communication (DI-QSDC) protocol, where no assumptions are made about the way the devices work or on what quantum system they operate. We show that in the absence of noise, the DI-QSDC protocol is absolutely secure and there is no limitation for the communication distance. However, under practical noisy quantum channel condition, the photon transmission loss and photon state decoherence would reduce the communication quality and threaten its absolute security. For solving the photon transmission loss and decoherence problems, we adopt noiseless linear amplification (NLA) protocol and entanglement purification protocol (EPP) to modify the DI-QSDC protocol. With the help of the NLA and EPP, we can guarantee the absolute security of the DI-QSDC and effectively improve its communication quality., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures

Blind quantum computation (BQC) is a new type of quantum computation model. BQC allows a client (Alice) who does not have enough sophisticated technology and knowledge to perform universal quantum computation and resorts a remote quantum computation server (Bob) to delegate universal quantum computation. During the computation, Bob cannot know Alice's inputs, algorithm and outputs. In single-server BQC protocol, it requires Alice to prepare and distribute single-photon states to Bob. Unfortunately, the distributed single photons will suffer from noise, which not only makes the single-photon state decoherence, but also makes it loss. In this protocol, we describe an anti-noise BQC protocol, which combined the ideas of faithful distribution of single-photon state in collective noise, the feasible quantum nondemolition measurement and Broadbent-Fitzsimons-Kashefi (BFK) protocol. This protocol has several advantages. First, Alice does not require any auxiliary resources, which reduces the client's economic cost. Second, this protocol not only can protect the state from the collective noise, but also can distill the single photon from photon loss. Third, the noise setup in Bob is based on the linear optics, and it is also feasible in experiment. This anti-noise BQC may show that it is possible to perform the BQC protocol in a noisy environment., 6 pages, 4 figures

We put forward an effective amplification protocol for protecting the single-photon multi-mode W state of the time-bin qubit. The protocol only relies on linear optical elements, such as the $50:50$ beam splitters, variable beam splitters with the transmission of $t$ and the polarizing beam splitters. Only one pair of the single-photon multi-mode W state and some auxiliary single photons are required, and the fidelity of the single-photon multi-mode W state can be increased under $t, Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1605.09480

We design an effect protocol for protecting the single-photon entanglement from photon loss and decoherence. The protocol only requires some auxiliary single photons and the linear optical elements. By operating the protocol, the photon loss can be effectively decreased and the less entangled single photon state can be recovered to the maximally entangled state with some probability. Moreover, the polarization information encoded in the single photon state can be perfectly contained. The protocol can be realized under current experimental condition. As the single photon entanglement is quite important in quantum communication, this protocol may be useful in current and future quantum information processing., 9 pages,5 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1605.09480

Based on modern quantum measurement theory, we use Zurek's "triple model" to study, from the viewpoint of quantum information theory, the wave and particle nature of a photon in a symmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer. In the process of quantum measurement, the state of both the system and the detector is not an entangled state but a correlated state. We find that the information gain about the photon is related to the correlations (including classical and quantum correlations) between the photon and the detector. We also derive the relationship between the information gain and the fringe visibility. We find that the classical correlations remain consistent with the path distinguishability and can be used to describe the particle-like property of the photon. Quantum correlations are not exactly the same as fringe visibility, but both can represent the quantum coherence of the photon. Finally, we provide an analytical expression for quantum correlations of one type of two-qubit separable states.

Logic-qubit entanglement is a promising resource in quantum information processing, especially in future large-scale quantum networks. In the paper, we put forward an efficient entanglement purification protocol (EPP) for nonlocal mixed logic entangled states with the bit-flip error in the logic qubits of the logic Bell state, resorting to the photon-atom interaction in low-quality (Q) cavity and atomic state measurement. Different from existing EPPs, this protocol can also purify the logic phase-flip error, and the bit-flip error and the phase-flip error in physic qubit. During the protocol, we only require to measure the atom states, and it is useful for improving the entanglement of photon systems in future large-scale quantum networks., 14 page, 6 figures

The concatenated Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (C-GHZ) state is a new type of multipartite entangled state, which has potential application in future quantum information. In this paper, we propose a protocol of constructing arbitrary C-GHZ entangled state approximatively. Different from the previous protocols, each logic is encoded in the coherent state. This protocol is based on the linear optics, which is feasible in experimental technology. This protocol may be useful in quantum information based on the C-GHZ state., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures

Logic-qubit entanglement has attracted much attention in both quantum communication and quantum computation. Here, we present an efficient protocol to distill the logic-qubit entanglement with the help of cross-Kerr nonlinearity. This protocol not only can purify the logic bit-flip error and logic phase-flip error, but also can correct the physical bit-flip error completely. We use cross-Kerr nonlinearity to construct quantum nondemolition detectors. Our distillation protocol for logic-qubit entanglement may be useful for the practical applications in quantum information, especially in long-distance quantum communication., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures

The concatenated Greenberger-Horne-Zeiglinger (C-GHZ) state which is a new type of logic-qubit entanglement has attracted a lot of attentions recently. We present a feasible entanglement concentration protocol (ECP) for logic-qubit entanglement. This ECP is based on the linear optics, and it does not know the initial coefficients of the less-entangled C-GHZ state. This protocol can be extended to arbitrary C-GHZ state. This protocol may be useful in future quantum information processing tasks., Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures

We put forward an effective amplification protocol for protecting the single-photon entangled state of the time-bin qubit. The protocol only requires one pair of the single-photon entangled state and some auxiliary single photons. With the help of the 50:50 beam splitters, variable beam splitters with the transmission of $t$ and the polarizing beam splitters, we can increase the fidelity of the single-photon entangled state under $t, Comment: 9 page4, 4 figures

In recent experiments[e.g., Nature Physics 2, 332 (2006)], the enhanced light deflection in an atomic ensemble due to inhomogeneous fields is demonstrated by the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) based mechanism. In this paper, we explore an different mechanism for the similar phenomenon of the enhanced light deflection. This mechanism is based on the coherent population oscillation, which leads to the hole burning in the absorption spectrum. The medium causing the deflection of probe light is an ensemble of two-level atoms manipulated by a strong controlled field on the two photon resonances. In the large detuning condition, the response of the medium to the pump field and signal field is obtained with steady state approximation. And it is found that after the probe field travels across the medium, the signal ray bends due to the spatial-dependent profile of the control beam., 7pages, 2 figures

We study quantum optics with the atoms coupled to the quantized electromagnetic (EM) field in a non-inertial reference frame by making use of quantum field theory in curved spacetime. We rigorously establish the microscopic model for a two-level atom interacting with the quantized EM field in a rotating ring cavity by deriving a Jaynes-Cummings (JC) type Hamiltonian. Due to the two fold degeneracy of the ring cavity modes, the Rabi splitting exhibits three rather than two resonant frequency peaks. We find that the heights of the two side peaks show a sensitive linear dependence on the rotating velocity. This high sensitivity can be utilized to detect the angular velocity of the whole system., 8 pages, 2 figures

Blind quantum machine learning (BQML) enables a classical client with little quantum technology to delegate a remote quantum machine learning to the quantum server in such a approach that the privacy data is preserved. Here we propose the first BQML protocol that the client can classify two-dimensional vectors to different clusters, resorting to a remote small-scale photon quantum computation processor. During the protocol, the client is only required to rotate and measure the single qubit. The protocol is secure without leaking any relevant information to the Eve. Any eavesdropper who attempts to intercept and disturb the learning process can be noticed. In principle, this protocol can be used to classify high dimensional vectors and may provide a new viewpoint and application for quantum machine learning., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figures

The concatenated Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (C-GHZ) state has great potential application in the future quantum network, for it is robust to the decoherence in a noisy environment. In the paper, we propose a complete C-GHZ state analysis protocol with the help of some auxiliary single atoms trapped in the low-quality cavities. In the protocol, we essentially make the parity check for the photonic states based on the photonic Faraday rotation effect, and complete the analysis task combined with the Hadamard operation and single qubit measurement. The success probability of our protocol can reach 100\% in principle, and the number of physical qubit encoded in each logic qubit does not affect the analysis. Our analysis protocol may have its practical application in future long-distance quantum communication., Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures

We propose two efficient entanglement concentration protocols (ECPs) for arbitrary less-entangled single-photon entanglement (SPE). Different from all the previous ECPs, these protocols not only can obtain the maximally SPE, but also can protect the single qubit information encoded in the polarization degree of freedom. These protocols only require one pair of less-entangled single-photon entangled state and some auxiliary single photons, which makes them economical. The first ECP is operated with the linear optical elements, which can be realized in current experiment. The second ECP adopts the cross-Kerr nonlinearities. Moreover, the second ECP can be repeated to concentrate the discard states in some conventional ECPs, so that it can get a high success probability. Based on above properties, our ECPs may be useful in current and future quantum communication., 11 pages, 4 figures

Photon loss is one of the main obstacles in current long-distance quantum communications. The approach of noiseless linear amplification (NLA) is one of the powerful way to distill the single-photon state (SPS) from a mixed state, which comprises both the SPS and vacuum state. However, existing NLA protocol can only perform the amplification for one time. That is the fidelity of the SPS cannot be increased anymore. In this paper, We put forward an efficient cascaded NLA protocol for both the SPS and single-photon entanglement (SPE), respectively, with the help of some auxiliary single photons. By repeating this protocol for sever times, the fidelity of the SPS and SPE can reach near 100\%, which may make this protocol is extremely useful to close the detection loophole in quantum key distribution. Moreover, this protocol is based on the linear optics, which makes it feasible in current technology., 9 pages, 8 figures

Decoherence is one of the main obstacles in long-distance quantum communication. Recently, the theoretical work of Fr\"{o}wis and W. D\"{u}r (Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{106}, 110402 (2011)) and the experiment of Lu \emph{et al.} (Nat. Photon. \textbf{8}, 364 (2014)) both showed that the logic qubits entanglement say the concatenated Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (C-GHZ) state is more robust under decoherence. In this paper, we describe a protocol for Bell-state analysis for this logic qubits entanglement. This protocol can also be extended to the multipartite C-GHZ state analysis. Also, we discuss its application in the quantum teleportation of a unknown logic qubit and in the entanglement swapping of logic Bell states. As the logic qubits entanglement is more robust under decoherence, our protocol shows that it is possible to realize the long-distance quantum communication based on logic qubits entanglement., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures

We present a practical entanglement distillation protocol (EDP) with linear optics for a genuine mixed state. Each components of the genuine mixed state is a pure less-entangled state. After successfully performing this EDP, we can obtain a high quality entangled mixed state. Our EDP can work for both ideal entanglement sources and current available spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) sources, which makes it feasible in current experimental technology. Moreover, by using the SPDC source, we can obtain a higher fidelity. This protocol can also be used to distill the multi-partite entangled systems. All the features make it practical and useful in current quantum communications., 9 pages, 7 figures

We describe an efficient way for measuring the concurrence of the hyperentanglement. In this protocol, the hyperentangled state is encoded in both polarization and momentum degrees of freedom. We show that the concurrences of both polarization and momentum entanglement can be conversed into the total success probability of picking up the odd-parity state and can be measured directly. This protocol requires the weak cross-Kerr nonlinearity to construct the quantum nondemolition measurement and does not resort to the sophisticated controlled-not gate operation. It is feasible in current experimental technology., 7 pages, 3 figures

We propose an efficient protocol for measuring the concurrence of arbitrary two-photon pure entangled state with the help of the photonic Faraday rotation. In the protocol, the concurrence of the photonic entangled state can be conversed into the total success probability for picking up the odd-parity photonic state. For completing the measurement task, we require some auxiliary three-level atoms, which are trapped in the low-quality cavities. Our protocol can be well realized under current experimental conditions. Moreover, under practical imperfect atom state detection and photonic Faraday rotation conditions, our protocol can also work well. Based on these features, our protocol may be useful in current quantum information processing., Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures

We present an efficient way for measuring the entanglement of the atoms. Through the auxiliary single photons input-output process in cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED), the concurrence of the atomic entanglement can be obtained according to the success probability of picking up the singlet states of the atoms. This protocol has three advantages: First, we do not require the sophisticated controlled-not (CNOT) gates. Second, the distributed atoms are not required to intact with each other. Third, the atomic entanglement can be distributed nonlocally, which provides its important applications in distributed quantum computation., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

We present a way for the entanglement distillation of genuine mixed state. Different from the conventional mixed state in entanglement purification protocol, each components of the mixed state in our protocol is a less-entangled state, while it is always a maximally entangled state. With the help of the weak cross-Kerr nonlinearity, this entanglement distillation protocol does not require the sophisticated single-photon detectors. Moreover, the distilled high quality entangled state can be retained to perform the further distillation. These properties make it more convenient in practical applications., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

We present two groups of practical entanglement concentration protocols (ECPs) for optical hybrid entangled state (HES). In the first group, it contains two ECPs and both ECPs do not need to know the initial coefficients of the less-entangled state. The second group contains three ECPs and they need to know the initial coefficients. It is shown that the yield of the entanglement concentration in the second group is greater than the first group. Moreover, some protocols are based on the linear optics and can be easily realized under current experiment condition. These protocols may be useful in current hybrid quantum communication., 10 pages, 8 figures

We propose two optimal entanglement concentration protocols (ECPs) for arbitrary single-photon multi-mode W state and multi-photon polarization W state, respectively. In both ECPs, we only require one pair of partially entangled W state, and do not consume any auxiliary photon. Both ECPs are based on the linear optics which can be easily realized. On the other hand, the concentrated maximally entangled states can be remained, which are quite different from the previous ECPs. Moreover, for the concentration of the arbitrary single-photon N-mode W state or N-mode polarization W state, the total success probability is equal to Nth the modulus square of the Schmidt coefficient of the smallest magnitude. It makes both ECPs optimal than all the previous ECPs. Our ECPs may be useful in current quantum communication fields., 9 pages, 3 figures

We study a waveguide QED system with a rectangular waveguide and a two-level system (TLS) inside, where the transverse modes TMmn define the quantum channels of guided photons. It is discovered that the loss of photons in the TM11 channel into the others can be overcome by replacing it with a certain coherent superposition of TMmn channels, which is named as the controllable channel (CC) as the photons in CC can be perfectly reflected or transmitted by the TLS, and never lost into the other channels. The dark state emerges when the photon is incident from one of the scattering-free channels (SFCs) orthogonal to CC. The underlying physics mechanism is the multi-channel interference associated with Fano resonance., Comment: 5 pages, 9 figures

We present two protocols for the single-photon entanglement concentration. With the help of the 50:50 beam splitter, variable beam splitter and an auxiliary photon, we can concentrate a less-entangled single-photon state into a maximally single-photon entangled state with some probability. The first protocol is implemented with linear optics and the second protocol is implemented with the cross-Kerr nonlinearity. Our two protocols do not need two pairs of entangled states shared by the two parties, which makes our protocols more economic. Especially, in the second protocol, with the help of the cross-Kerr nonlinearity, the sophisticated single photon detector is not required. Moreover, the second protocol can be reused to get higher success probability. All these advantages may make our protocols useful in the long-distance quantum communication., 9 pages, 3 figures

A recent paper [Chuan Wang, Phys. Rev. A \textbf{86}, 012323 (2012)] discussed an entanglement concentration protocol (ECP) for partially entangled electrons using a quantum dot and microcavity coupled system. In his paper, each two-electron spin system in a partially entangled state can be concentrated with the assistance of an ancillary quantum dot and a single photon. In this paper, we will present an optimal ECP for such entangled electrons with the help of only one single photon. Compared with the protocol of Wang, the most significant advantage is that during the whole ECP, the single photon only needs to pass through one microcavity which will increase the total success probability if the cavity is imperfect. The whole protocol can be repeated to get a higher success probability. With the feasible technology, this protocol may be useful in current long-distance quantum communications., 6 pages, 3 figures

We present an entanglement concentration protocols (ECPs) for less-entangled W state with quantum-dot and microcavity coupled system. The present protocol uses the quantum nondemolition measurement on the spin parity to construct the parity check gate. Different from other ECPs, this less-entangled W state with quantum-dot and microcavity coupled system can be concentrated with the help of some single photons. The whole protocol can be repeated to get a higher success probability. It may be useful in current quantum information processing., 9 pages, 6 figures

We present two entanglement concentration protocols (ECPs) for arbitrary three-electron W state based on their charges and spins. Different from other ECPs, in both two ECPs, with the help of the electronic polarization beam splitter (PBS) and charge detection, the less-entangled W state can be concentrated into a maximally entangled state only with some single charge qubits. The second ECP is more optimal than the first one, for by constructing the complete parity check gate, the second ECP can be used repeatedly to further concentrate the less-entangled state and obtain a higher success probability. Therefore, both the ECPs, especially the second one may be useful in current quantum information processing., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures

We present an optimal entanglement concentration ECP for an arbitrary less-entangled W state. By two of the parties say Alice and Charlie performing one parity check measurements, they can obtain the maximally entangled W state with a certain probability. Otherwise, they can obtain another lesser-entangled W state with another probability, which can be used to reconcentrated into a maximally entangled W state. By iterating this ECP several times, it has the maximal success probability. This ECP maybe an optimal one and is useful in current quantum information processing., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures

A recent paper (Phys. Rev. A 86, 034305 (2012)) proposed an entanglement concentration protocol (ECP) for less-entangled $N$-atom GHZ state with the help of the photonic Faraday rotation. It is shown that the maximally entangled atom state can be distilled from two pairs of less-entangled atom states. In this paper, we put forward an improved ECP for arbitrary less-entangled N-atom GHZ state with only one pair of less-entangled atom state, one auxiliary atom and one auxiliary photon. Moreover, our ECP can be used repeatedly to obtain a higher success probability. If consider the practical operation and imperfect detection, our protocol is more efficient. This ECP may be useful in current quantum information processing., Comment: 10 page, 5 figure

We put forward two efficient entanglement concentration protocols (ECPs) for distilling the maximally entangled NOON state from arbitrary less-entangled NOON state with only an auxiliary single photon. With the help of the weak cross-Kerr nonlinearities, both the two ECPs can be used repeatedly to get a high success probability. In the first ECP, the auxiliary single photon should be shared by the two parties say Alice and Bob. In the second ECP, the auxiliary single photon is only possessed by Bob, which can greatly increase the practical success probability by avoiding the transmission loss. Moreover, Bob can operate the whole protocol alone, which makes the protocol more simple. Therefore, our two ECPs, especially the second ECP may be more useful and convenient in the current quantum information processing., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures

A recent paper (Phys. Rev. A \textbf{86}, 034305 (2012)) proposed an entanglement concentration protocol (ECP) for distilling one pair of maximally entangled multi-photon Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state from two pairs of less-entangled multi-photon states with the photonic Faraday rotation. In this paper, we put forward an improved ECP for arbitrary less-entangled multi-photon GHZ state. In the ECP, we only require one pair of less-entangled multi-photon state and one auxiliary photon, and the whole concentration process only requires local operations. Moreover, our ECP can be used repeatedly to further concentrate the less-entangled multi-photon state and obtain a higher success probability. If consider the practical operation and imperfect detection, our protocol is more efficient. This ECP may be useful in current quantum information processing., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1210.6178

We present an universal way to concentrate an arbitrary $N$-particle less-entangled $W$ state into a maximally entangled $W$ state with different parity check gates. It comprises two protocols. The first protocol is based on the linear optical elements say the partial parity check gate and the second one uses the quantum nondemolition (QND) to construct the complete parity check gate. Both of which can achieve the concentration task. These protocols have several advantages. First, it can obtain a maximally entangled W state only with the help of some single photons, which greatly reduces the number of entanglement resources. Second, in the first protocol, only linear optical elements are required which is feasible with current techniques. Third, in the second protocol, it can be repeated to perform the concentration step and get a higher success probability. All these advantages make it be useful in current quantum communication and computation applications., Comment: 11pages,8figures

We investigate decoherence-free evolution (DFE) of quantum discord (QD) for two initially-correlated qubits in two finite-temperature reservoirs using an exactly solvable model. We study QD dynamics of the two qubits coupled to two independent Ohmic reservoirs when the two qubits are initially prepared in X-type quantum states. It is found that reservoir temperature significantly affects the DFE dynamics. We show that it is possible to control the DFE and to prolong the DFE time by choosing suitable parameters of the two-qubit system and reservoirs., 7 pages, 5 figures

We report on the transition between two regimes from several-atom clusters to much larger nanoparticles in Ar magnetron sputter deposition of WSi2, and the effect of nanoparticles on the properties of amorphous thin films and multilayers. Sputter deposition of thin films is monitored by in situ x-ray scattering, including x-ray reflectivity and grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering. The results show an abrupt transition at an Ar background pressure Pc; the transition is associated with the threshold for energetic particle thermalization, which is known to scale as the product of the Ar pressure and the working distance between the magnetron source and the substrate surface. Below Pc smooth films are produced, while above Pc roughness increases abruptly, consistent with a model in which particles aggregate in the deposition flux before reaching the growth surface. The results from WSi2 films are correlated with in situ measurement of stress in WSi2/Si multilayers, which exhibits a corresponding transition from compressive to tensile stress at Pc. The tensile stress is attributed to coalescence of nanoparticles and the elimination of nano-voids., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures; v3: published version

We analyze coherent transport of photons, which propagate in a one-dimensional coupled-resonator waveguide (CRW) and are scattered by a controllable two-level system located inside the CRW. Our approach, which uses discrete coordinates, unifies "low" and "high" energy effective theories for single photon scattering. We show that the controllable two-level system can behave as a quantum switch for the coherent transport of photons. This study may inspire new electro-optical single-photon quantum devices. We also suggest an experimental setup based on superconducting transmission line resonators and qubits, 4 pages, 5 figures

We study the coherent scattering process of a single photon confined in an one-dimensional (1D) coupled cavity-array, where a $\Lambda$-type three-level atom is placed inside one of the cavities in the array and behaves as a functional quantum node (FQN). We show that, through the electromagnetic induced transparency (EIT) mechanism, the $\Lambda$-type FQN bears complete control over the reflection and transmission of the incident photon along the cavity-array. We also demonstrate the emergence of a quasibound state of the single photon inside a secondary cavity constructed by two distant FQN's as two end mirrors, from which we are motivated to design an all-optical single photon storage device of quantum coherence., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

In this paper, we propose and study a hybrid mechanism for coherent transmission of photons in the coupled resonator optical waveguide (CROW) by incorporating the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) effect into the controllable band gap structure of the CROW. Here, the configuration setup of system consists of a CROW with homogeneous couplings and the artificial atoms with $��$-type three levels doped in each cavity. The roles of three levels are completely considered based on a mean field approach where the collection of three-level atoms collectively behave as two-mode spin waves. We show that the dynamics of low excitations of atomic ensemble can be effectively described by an coupling boson model. The exactly solutions show that the light pulses can be stopped and stored coherently by adiabatically controlling the classical field., 10 pages, 6 figures

A perfect quantum state transfer(QST) has been shown in an engineered spin chain with "always-on interaction". Here, we consider a more realistic problem for such a protocol, the quantum decoherence induced by a spatially distributed environment, which is universally modeled as a bath of harmonic oscillators. By making use of the irreducible tensor method in angular momentum theory, we investigate the effect of decoherence on the efficiency of QST for both cases at zero and finite temperatures. We not only show the generic exponential decay of QST efficiency as the number of sites increase, but also find some counterintuitive effect, the QST can be enhanced as temperature increase., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures