Photonic entanglement swapping with remote quantum dots
Entanglement swapping is a protocol that details how to create entanglement between previously uncorrelated particles. Its photonic version, mediated by the interference of photon pairs generated by separate quantum systems, finds disparate applications in quantum networks. So far, entanglement swapping with entangled photons from remote systems has been implemented only using probabilistic sources. However, the scaling up of quantum networks requires nonprobabilistic quantum emitters without a trade-off between the degree of entanglement and photon-pair generation rate. Here, we demonstrate photonic entanglement swapping using photon pairs generated by two separate GaAs quantum dots. The emitters are deterministically embedded in hybrid semiconductor-piezoelectric devices that make the entangled photons from two dissimilar quantum dots nearly identical. Entanglement swapping is demonstrated with a fidelity as high as 0.71(2), more than 10 SDs above the classical limit. The experimental data are quantitatively explained by a theoretical model that also suggests how to boost the protocol performance. Our work opens the path to the exploitation of quantum dot entangled-photon sources in quantum repeater networks.
Authors
- Armando Rastelli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1343-4962)
- Barbara Souza Damasceno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6284-6939)
- Klaus D. Jöns (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5814-7510)
- Francesco Basso Basset (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2148-0010)
- Thomas Oberleitner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1684-5150)
- Sandra Stroj (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6387-4248)
- Sven Höfling (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0034-4682)
- Saimon Filipe Covre da Silva (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4977-1933)
- Rinaldo Trotta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9515-6790)
- Francesco Salusti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-9111-4274)
- Mattia Beccaceci (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0988-5389)
- Giuseppe Ronco (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7740-4220)
- Alessandro Laneve (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0416-5131)
- Quirin Buchinger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2114-2628)
- Tobias M. Krieger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1245-9866)
- Michele B. Rota (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3933-6997)
- Tobias Huber (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5788-8501)
- Fabrizio Cienzo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4166-4239)
- Pierpaolo Bassetti
- Silke Kuhn
Institutions
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE)
- Johannes Kepler University of Linz (AT)
- University of Vienna (AT)
- Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) (BR)
- Paderborn University (DE)
- University of Würzburg (DE)
- Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology (AT)
- Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology (DE)
- Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences (AT)
- Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
- Politecnico di Milano (IT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2026-11-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeh7797
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Quantum Information and Cryptography
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 7.89
Funders
- Digital Europe Programme
- European Commission
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
- Austrian Science Fund
- QuantERA
- HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme
- European Research Council