Multiplexed entanglement swapping with atomic-ensemble-based quantum memories in the single excitation regime

Abstract: Entanglement swapping (ES) between memory repeater links is critical for establishing quantum networks via quantum repeaters. So far, ES with atomic-ensemble-based memories has not been achieved. Here, we experimentally demonstrated ES between two entangled pairs of spin-wave memories via Duan-Lukin-Cirac-Zoller scheme. With a cloud of cold atoms inserted in a cavity, we produce non-classically-correlated spin-wave-photon pairs in 12 spatial modes and then prepare two entangled pairs of spin-wave memories via a multiplexed scheme. Via single-photon Bell measurement on retrieved fields from two memories, we project the two remaining memories never entangled previously into an entangled state with the measured concurrence of C = 0.0124(0.003). The successful probability of ES in our scheme is increased by three times, compared with that in non-multiplexed scheme. Our presented work shows that the generation of entanglement (C>0) between the remaining memory ensembles requires the average cross-correlation function of the spin-wave-photon pairs to be >30 .