Bipartite entanglement distillation by unilateral and bilateral local filters using polarizing Mach-Zehnder interferometers

The extraordinary correlation seen in entangled states in space-like separated regions is one of the most intriguing aspects of quantum states. Practical utility of entanglement as a resource for quantum key distribution, dense coding, or teleportation generally requires maximally entangled states. In practice, entanglement quality degrades substantially due to channel noise. The problem may be mitigated by entanglement distillation. The simplest distillation protocol is enforced by local filtering operations and classical communication. The local filtering operations are merely generalized positive operator valued measures utilizing additional degrees of freedom (DoFs) as ancillary qubits. In this work, we experimentally show that filtering on a single channel (unilateral) is equally effective as filtering on both channels (bilateral) for distillation of pure non-maximally entangled bipartite states. This result holds for a non-maximally entangled multi-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) like states as well, as they show a straightforward extension of the Bell state structure. Further, we provide a theoretical comparison of the efficacy of unilateral and bilateral filtering for the case of mixed states resulting from local depolarizing noise introduced either in one or both of the non-maximally entangled pairs. Surprisingly, when noise is introduced in either one of the channels, we find that unilateral filtering on the noise-free channel outperforms the filtering on the noisy channel and bilateral filtering on both channels. We also find that bilateral filtering is more effective when both channels are noisy. A reduction in the number of local operations, in general, has the advantage of reducing the complexity of the experimental apparatus and the reduction of measurement related errors.

Automated summary

The extraordinary correlation seen in entangled states in space-like separated regions is one of the most intriguing aspects of quantum states. In practice, entanglement quality degrades substantially due to channel noise. The problem may be mitigated by entanglement distillation. The simplest distillation protocol is enforced by local filtering operations and classical communication. In this work, we experimentally show that filtering on a single channel (unilateral) is equally effective as filtering on both channels (bilateral) for distillation of pure non-maximally entangled bipartite states. This result holds for a non-maximally entangled multi-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) like states as well, as they show a straightforward extension of the Bell state structure. Further, we provide a theoretical comparison of the efficacy of unilateral and bilateral filtering for the case of mixed states resulting from local depolarizing noise introduced either in one or both of the non-maximally entangled pairs. Surprisingly, when noise is introduced in either one of the channels, we find that unilateral filtering on the noise-free channel outperforms the filtering on the noisy channel and bilateral filtering on both channels. We also find that bilateral filtering is more effective when both channels are noisy. A reduction in the number of local operations, in general, has the advantage of reducing the complexity of the experimental apparatus and the reduction of measurement related errors.