Quantum entanglement distillation with metamaterials

We propose a scheme for the distillation of partially entangled two-photon Bell and three-photon W states using metamaterials. The distillation of partially entangled Bell states is achieved by using two metamaterials with polarization dependence, one of which is rotated by pi/2 around the direction of propagation of the photons. On the other hand, the distillation of three-photon W states is achieved by using one polarization dependent metamaterial and two polarization independent metamaterials. Upon transmission of the photons of the partially entangled states through the metamaterials the entanglement of the states increases and they become distilled. This work opens up new directions in quantum optical state engineering by showing how metamaterials can be used to carry out a quantum information processing task. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America