Researchers at NTT Envision Quantum Repeaters in Future Photonic Networks

Researchers at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) and the University of Toronto are proposing all-photonic quantum repeaters for long-distance quantum communication.  If achieved, such devices would disprove the necessity of matter quantum memories in long distance quantum communications, which is seen by many as the ultimate future of optical communications.

In a paper published this week by the journal Nature Communications, the researchers said their all-photonic scheme paves a completely new route towards long-distance quantum communication based only on optical devices. Compared to matter quantum memories, this approach eliminates the quantum interface between matter and photons.  The design is based on existing optical technology, such as linear optical elements, single-photon sources, photon detectors and an active feed-forward technique.

http://www.ntt.co.jp/news2015/1504e/150415a.html