Quantum Inf Process (2017) 16:24

DOI 10.1007/s11128-016-1459-9

Schemes generating entangled states and entanglement

swapping between photons and three-level atoms inside
optical cavities for quantum communication

Jino Heo1 · Min-Sung Kang2 · Chang-Ho Hong3 ·

Hyeon Yang1 · Seong-Gon Choi1

Received: 28 March 2016 / Accepted: 27 October 2016 / Published online: 19 December 2016
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016

Abstract We propose quantum information processing schemes based on cavity quan-

tum electrodynamics (QED) for quantum communication. First, to generate entangled
states (Bell and Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger [GHZ] states) between flying photons
and three-level atoms inside optical cavities, we utilize a controlled phase flip (CPF)
gate that can be implemented via cavity QED). Subsequently, we present an entangle-
ment swapping scheme that can be realized using single-qubit measurements and CPF
gates via optical cavities. These schemes can be directly applied to construct an entan-
glement channel for a communication system between two users. Consequently, it is
possible for the trust center, having quantum nodes, to accomplish the linked channel
(entanglement channel) between the two separate long-distance users via the distribu-
tion of Bell states and entanglement swapping. Furthermore, in our schemes, the main
physical component is the CPF gate between the photons and the three-level atoms in
cavity QED, which is feasible in practice. Thus, our schemes can be experimentally
realized with current technology.

Keywords Entangled state · Entanglement swapping · Quantum communication ·

Cavity QED

B Seong-Gon Choi
choisg@cbnu.ac.kr

1 School of Information and Communication Engineering, Chungbuk National University,

Chungdae-ro 1, Seowon-gu, Cheongju, Republic of Korea
2 Center for Quantum Information, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST),
Seoul 136-791, Republic of Korea
3 National Security Research Institute, P.O.Box 1, Yuseong, Daejeon 34188, Republic of Korea

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1 Introduction

Quantum communication, one of the quantum information processing schemes, can

transfer the quantum state (quantum or classical information) between distant users
(Alice and Bob), and which is necessary in quantum key distribution [1–3], quantum
secure direct communication [4–7], quantum signature [8–10], quantum teleportation
and computation [11–13].
The quantum channel (including the entanglement channel) plays an important
role in quantum communication. Thus, carriers of information are required in order
to communicate and construct the quantum channel. One of the carriers is a flying
photon, which is a feasible resource to transfer information and to compose the channel
in long-distance communication. However, when we directly transmit the photon, the
transfer rate of the photon is exponentially lower due to optical absorption and noise in
the channel. This will make long-distance communication and the extended network
impractical. Fortunately, Briegel et al. [14] proposed quantum repeaters to overcome
this problem. Via the trust centers (TCs) in quantum repeater schemes, the transmission
channel (long-distance) between users can be divided into many short segments that
share entangled states in order to link, respectively. Finally, through entanglement
swapping [15,16] in segments, entangled states could be distributed between users
(constructing the quantum channel for communication). Subsequently, various types
of quantum repeater scheme were proposed, such as the single-photon type [17–21] and
the coherent-state type [22,23]. However, entanglement (entangled state) distribution
and entanglement swapping in these schemes are probabilistic.
Also, for feasible long-distance communication (including quantum repeaters and
quantum networks) with efficiency, quantum memory (which can store entangled states
for a sufficiently long time) is necessary during protocols. The energy levels of the
trapped atoms and ions may be candidates for a long coherence time. Thus, meth-
ods of constructing a quantum channel have been proposed via the various physical
resources, such as nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond [24–26], quantum dot cavity
systems [27–32], single trapped ions [33], and atomic ensembles [34–40]. Recently,
as is well known, the states of atoms in cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) are
good physical resources for quantum information processing in terms of long-lived
internal states. And many proposals have been put forward, such as realizing the con-
trolled phase flip (CPF) gate [41–46], generating entangled states [47–50], analysis of
entangled states [51,52], quantum cloning [53,54], and quantum networks [55,56] in
theoretical and experimental researches [41–44,57–65].
In this paper, we propose schemes that are realizing the generation of entangled
states (Bell and Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger [GHZ] states) and entanglement swap-
ping, based on CPF gates using the interaction of photons and three-level atoms inside
optical cavities, to construct an entanglement channel for long-distance communica-
tion. The existing schemes [41,51,52] employed methods that encode the operations
(the generation of entangled states or the controlled operations, and so on) into only the
photons via cavity-assisted interactions for quantum information processing. Namely,
the result of CPF operation [41] is encoded only two photons via cavity QED and
entangled states of between photons are analyzed by measuring atom state in cavity
[51,52]. On the other hand, other schemes [43–45,47,48,53,54,56] concentrate to

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encode quantum information into atoms inside the optical cavities (quantum nodes),
such as quantum controlled operation [43–45], generation of entangled state between
atoms in cavities [47,48,56], and cloning of quantum state [53,54]. And flying photons
are only used to connect quantum nodes (cavities) in a quantum network. As we know,
two resources (photons and trapped atoms in cavities) have the distinguishable advan-
tages. Photons are utilized to the best carriers for fast and reliable communication and
being easy to manipulate with linear optical operations, but they are inconvenient to
store for a long time, while the trapped atoms, which can maintain a long coherence
time, in cavities are ideal for the storage of quantum information. Thus, those can be
used to store and operate quantum information in quantum nodes.
In our schemes, thus, to maximize the merits of physical resources (the flying
photon and the trapped atom), we design our schemes to be comprised of users (like
customers) which are provided with an entangled state or an entanglement channel
from the TC (like a channel provider). For quantum communication between users
who want to communicate with each other, only the flying photons (entangled states
or entanglement channels), which are the best carriers to transfer for communication,
are distributed from TC to users. While to manage (provide) entangled states and an
entanglement channel, the TC has quantum nodes (trapped atoms inside cavities) for
the preservation of long coherence times of quantum states. Furthermore, our schemes,
which utilize the CPF gates via cavity QED, are experimentally feasible with a certain
probability of success.

2 Realization of the controlled phase flip gate via three-level atom in an

optical cavity

We introduce the CPF gate [41,43,45], which is shown in Fig. 1, through cavity-
assisted interactions with a single photon. The atom in the cavity has a three-level
structure, one excited state |e and two ground states |0 and |1, in hyperfine manifolds.
The atomic transition |0 ↔ |e is resonantly coupled to the cavity mode, a H , with
the polarization |H  (horizontal) and is resonantly driven by the input single-photon
pulse. Suppose that the polarization |H  of the photon enters a single-sided cavity,
while the polarization |V  of the photon is reflected to the mirror via the polarizing
beam splitter (PBS). When the incoming photon |H , it will have resonant interaction
with the cavity if the atom is in ground state |1 and, then, acquires a phase of exp(iπ )
but its pulse shape is almost unchanged after its reflection. However, if the atom is
in ground state |0, the resonant atom-cavity coupling is significantly detuned from
frequency of the incoming photon |H . Thus, the photon pulse will be reflected by an
off-resonant cavity with both shape and phase unchanged.
Now, we introduce a theoretical model of the single-sided cavity for the CPF gate
[41,43,45]. When the trapped atom is in ground state |0, the interaction Hamiltonian
of the system of atom-cavity is described as

 
H = g |e0|a H + |0e|a +
H , (1)

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Fig. 1 Controlled phase flip (CPF) operation is realized using a single photon and a three-level atom inside
a single-sided cavity. The atomic transition |0 ↔ |e is coupled to the horizontal polarization, |H , of
cavity mode with coupling strength g. When the single-photon pulse passes through the polarizing beam
splitter (PBS), |H  is transmitted and |V  (vertical polarization) is reflected. By PBS, the transmitted |H 
of the input single-photon pulse resonantly drives the cavity mode and the reflected |V  of the input single-
photon pulse moves to the mirror. After interaction of between a single photon, |H , and cavity, the phase
of photon pulse |H  (reflected from cavity) will be changed or not and |V  will be reflected by the mirror.
Thus, by reflecting an output single-photon pulse, the CPF gate is realizable

where h̄ = 1, g is the atom-cavity coupling strength and a H is the cavity mode

with horizontal polarization. According to quantum Langevian equation, the cavity
mode, a H (t), is driven by the incoming photon pulse |H  (corresponding cavity input
H ), having duration time T , through
operator: a in
 κ √
ȧ H (t) = −i [a H (t), H ] − iδ + a H (t) − κa in
H (t), (2)
2
where δ (here δ = 0 in our scheme, but we retain it for the following analysis) denotes
the detuning of cavity mode from the atomic transition and κ is the decay rate of
the cavity mode. And the cavity output a out H operator is related with the cavity input
operator, a in
H , by the input-output relation
√
H (t) = a H (t) +
a out κa H (t),
in
(3)

where the cavity input and output operators satisfy the commutation relations
in+  out+  
H (t), a H (t )] = [a H (t), a H (t )] = δ(t − t ). While the polarization |V  of
[a in out

the photon pulse is reflected by mirror, the input-output relation is aVout (t) = aVin (t).
In the case of the input photon pulse duration T >> 1/κ, the input-output relation of
the single-sided cavity is given by

iδ − κ/2 in
H (t) ≈
a out a (t). (4)
iδ + κ/2 H

If the trapped atom is in the state |1, the Hamiltonian H in Eq. (1) does not operate and
H (t) ≈ −a H (t). Thus,
induces δ = 0. And we can obtain the input-output relation as a out in

the output pulse |H  can acquire a phase of exp(iπ ) from the cavity. However, the
trapped atom is in the state |0, the effective detuning of the two dressed cavity modes
from input pulse are δ = ±g, respectively, for strong coupling g >> (κ, γ ), where
γ is the spontaneous high-level emission rate. Thus, we can obtain the input-output
H (t) ≈ a H (t) from Eq. (4). Consequently, the operation of the CPF gate
relation as a out in

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Schemes generating entangled states and entanglement… Page 5 of 15 24

between the atom and the photon pulse is given by UC P F = exp(iπ |11| ⊗ |H H |).
Subsequently, we will utilize this CPF gate in our schemes as the quantum node in the
TC.

3 Generation of Bell and GHZ states and entanglement swapping

Network communication is extended from the users of a small group to a large number
of multi-users to let them securely communicate. As the number of linked users grows
for communication, the TC (the channel provider) that can produce and distribute the
channel needs to enhance efficiency. Also, it is possible for the TC to take charge of a
trusted third party, which effectively certifies the authentication of users in the network.
Therefore, researchers have proposed various protocols [2,8–10,55,56] including the
TC (trusted third party, or Trent) for efficiency and security.

3.1 Generation of Bell state and GHZ state of a TC having quantum nodes
through cavity QED

We present two schemes for the generation Bell and GHZ states via cavity QED. For
efficient and secure communication, we employ a TC (provider and manager), which
has the optical cavities (quantum nodes) in our schemes. Furthermore, the TC possesses
the atoms that make long-time storage possible in optical cavities (quantum nodes)
to facilitate implementation of quantum information processing. Flying photons are
used for communication to transfer the information between users.
As shown in Fig. 2, the TC in the right-hand scheme generates a Bell state between
atom 1 and photon A and distributes it to Alice using a quantum node (cavity 1).
We suppose that the TC prepares the state of atom 1 inside cavity 1 as |−, a1 ≡

Fig. 2 Left figure theoretically represents a schematic setup for generating and distributing a Bell state by
the TC. The right setup shows that the left figure is experimentally implemented utilizing cavity QED in
which the TC keeps atom 1 inside cavity 1 (the quantum node), where C is a circulator. After photon A is
reflected from the quantum node (cavity 1), it is correlated to atom 1 (the generation of a Bell state). Then,
a reflected photon A is transferred to Alice. Finally, the entanglement (quantum) channel, which entangled
between the state of atom 1 (stored by the TC) and the state of photon A (with Alice), is constructed between
the TC and Alice for quantum communication

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24 Page 6 of 15 J. Heo et al.

√
(|01 − |11 )/ 2 (the superposition
√ of the ground states), and the state of photon
A is |+, pA ≡ (|H A + |V A )/ 2 (superposition of the polarizations). After the
interaction (UC P F : CPF operation, as described in Sect. 2) of the photon–atom in the
quantum node (cavity 1), the initial state |−, a1 |+, pA is transformed to

+ 1
UC P F (|−, a1 |+, pA ) → |ap 1A = √ (|+, a1 |H A + |−, a1 |V A ) , (5)
2

√ √
where |±, a1 ≡ (|01 ± |11 )/ 2 and |±, PA ≡ (|H A ± |V A )/ 2. Also, all
basis sets of {|+, a1 , |−, a1 }, {|+, pA , |−, pA } and {|01 , |11 }, {|H A , |V A } are
orthogonal. Then, the TC sends photon A to Alice. Finally, the TC (atom 1) and Alice
(photon A) will share a Bell state |ap +
1A for the entanglement channel. In addition,
all output states (4-Bell states) according to the four different kinds of input state are
given by


quantum node: photon A  ±
 1
|−, a1 |±, pA −−−−−−−−−−−−−−→ ap = √ (|+, a1 |H A ± |−, a1 |V A )
1A 2

quantum node: photon A  ±
 1
|+, a1 |±, pA −−−−−−−−−−−−−−→  ap = √ (|−, a1 |H A ± |+, a1 |V A ) .
1A 2
(6)

Consequently, this scheme can generate and distribute 4-Bell states (between atom 1
and photon A) using the TC’s quantum node via cavity QED.
Next, we propose generation of a GHZ state via linear optical devices and an optical
cavity in the TC for two users (Alice and Bob). As shown in Fig. 3, the TC in the right-
hand scheme generates and distributes a GHZ state between atom 1 and photons A
and B, with Alice and Bob using a quantum node (cavity 1). The 22.5◦ -titled half √
wave plate (HWP) can realize√ the Hadamard operation as |H  → (|H  + |V )/ 2
and |V  → (|H  − |V )/ 2. Switch 1 (S1) and Switch 2 (S2) can be controlled in
the operation of transmitting or reflecting the states of the photon, depending on the
time table (black-line box) in Fig. 3. Let us consider the preparation of the states of
atom 1 and photons A and B as |+, a1 |+, pA |+, pB by the TC. After the photon A
passes through S1 (transmission), it interacts with the quantum node (cavity 1) in CPF
operation (UC P F ), as described in Sect. 2. The transformed state |ϕ1 1AB is expressed
as

S1 + quantum node: photon A

|+, a1 |+, pA |+, pB −−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−→ |ϕ1 1AB
1
= √ (|−, a1 |H A + |+, a1 |V A ) |+, pB . (7)
2

And then, after the photon B sequentially passes through S1 (reflection) and the quan-
tum node (cavity 1), the state |ϕ2 1AB is expressed as

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Fig. 3 Left figure theoretically represents a schematic setup of generating and distributing a GHZ state by
the TC. The right setup shows that the left figure is experimentally implemented utilizing cavity QED, in
which the TC keeps atom 1 inside cavity 1 (the quantum node), where C is a circulator, HWP is a half wave
plate, and S1 and S2 are two switches. The HWP is used as a Hadamard gate and the switches are controlled
to transmit or reflect photons according to a time table (black-line box). After two photons A and B are
reflected from the quantum node (cavity 1), they are correlated to atom 1 (the generation of the GHZ state).
Then, reflected photons A and B are transferred to Alice and Bob. Finally, the entanglement (quantum)
channel, which was entangled between the state of atom 1 (stored by the TC) and the states of photon A
(Alice) and photon B (Bob), is constructed between the TC, Alice, and Bob for quantum communication

S1 + quantum node: photon B

|ϕ1 1AB −−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−→
1
|ϕ2 1AB = (|+, a1 |H A |H B + |−, a1 |H A |V B + |−, a1 |V A |H B
2
+|+, a1 |V A |V B )
1
= √ (|01 |+, pA |+, pB + |11 |−, pA |−, pB ) . (8)
2

Subsequently, two photons A and B in the state |ϕ2 1AB consecutively pass through
the HWP and S2 (photon A: reflection and, then, photon B: transmission), the final
state, |ϕf 1AB , is given by

HWP + S2: photon A and B 1

|ϕ1 1AB −−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−→ |ϕf 1AB = √ (|01 |H A |H B + |11 |V A |V B ) .
2
(9)

Then, the TC sends photon A to Alice and photon B to Bob. Finally, the TC (atom
1) and Alice (photon A) and Bob (photon B) will share a GHZ state, |ϕf 1AB for an
entanglement channel. All output states (GHZ states) according to the input states are
listed in Table 1.

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Table 1 All possible GHZ states can be generated by linear optical devices and a single atom in a cavity
(quantum node), according to the prepared states of the TC

The prepared states of TC The generated GHZ states

√
|±, a1 |+, pA |+, pB (|01 |H A |H B ± |11 |V A |V B ) / 2
√
|±, a1 |+, pA |−, pB (|01 |H A |V B ± |11 |V A |H B ) / 2
√
|±, a1 |−, pA |+, pB (|01 |V A |H B ± |11 |H A |V B ) / 2
√
|±, a1 |−, pA |−, pB (|01 |V A |V B ± |11 |H A |H B ) / 2

Consequently, this scheme can generate and distribute GHZ states (between atom 1
and two photons, A and B) using the TC’s quantum node via cavity QED.

3.2 Entanglement swapping scheme of a TC with quantum nodes via cavity

QED

We propose an entanglement swapping scheme, as shown in Fig. 4, via linear opti-

cal devices and two optical cavities (two quantum nodes) in a TC for constructing
an entanglement channel between Alice and Bob. Our scheme is comprised of
two quantum nodes (two atoms inside the two cavities) and three flying pho-
tons (A, B, and P). The TC in our scheme can produce the distribution of two
entangled states between atom 1 and photon A (1-Bell state: TC–Alice) and
between atom 2 and photon B (1-Bell state: TC–Bob) via quantum nodes (cav-
ity 1 and 2). It can then compose the entanglement channel (Bell state between
photon A and photon B: Alice–Bob) by entanglement swapping. By employ-
ing photon P (we call this the probe photon) in the proposed scheme, we can
swap entangled states through single-qubit measurements without Bell state mea-
surement. In other words, we can simply perform single-qubit measurements of
atoms 1 and 2 and probe photon P, instead of Bell measurement, which is dif-
ficult to realize experimentally. Therefore, compared with the theoretical scheme
(the left side in Fig. 4), our scheme can enhance the experimental implementa-
tion and efficiency of entanglement swapping by not using Bell state measurement.
For example, the TC prepares the initial state as |ψin P1A2B = |+, pP |+, a1 |+,
pA |+, a2 |+, pB , where subscript P means the state of probe photon P. After photon
A passes through S1 (reflection), photon A is reflected from cavity 1 (a CPF opera-
tion), and photon B is reflected from cavity 2 (a CPF operation), the state |ψin P1A2B
is transformed as follows:

S1, 2 + quantum node 1,2: photon A and B  

|ψin P1A2B −−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−→ ψ1 P1A2B = |+, pP | ap
+ +
1A | ap 2B ,
(10)

±  , | ± 
where | ap 1A ap 2B are Bell states (atom–photon), as described in Eq. (6). Then,
the TC sends two photons, A and B, to Alice and Bob, respectively, (constructing two
entanglement channels: TC–Alice and TC–Bob). And then, after photon P (the probe

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Fig. 4 Left figure theoretically represents a schematic setup of entanglement swapping by the TC. This
theoretical scheme is composed of two steps: The first step is the distribution of two Bell states, and the second
step is the detection of probe photon and two single-qubit measurements (theoretically corresponding to Bell
state measurement) for entanglement swapping. The right setup shows that the left figure is experimentally
implemented utilizing cavity QED, in which the TC keeps atoms 1 and 2 inside cavities 1 and 2 (the quantum
nodes), where C is a circulator, HWP is a half wave plate, S1 and S2 are two switches, and DL is the delayed
loop. Switches are controlled to transmit or reflect photons according to a time table (black-line box). The
DL is used to control (or synchronize) the optical lengths of the photons. After two photons, A and B, are
reflected from cavity 1 and cavity 2, respectively, two Bell states (atom 1–photon A and atom 2–photon
B) are generated. Then, reflected photons A and B are transferred to Alice and Bob (constructed with two
entanglement channels of TC–Alice and TC–Bob). For entanglement swapping (TC–Alice and TC–Bob
→ Alice–Bob), the TC performs single-qubit measurements in terms of atoms 1 and 2 in the cavities and
the probe photon P, which interacted with the quantum nodes (cavities 1 and 2). Finally, the entanglement
(quantum) channel, which is entangled between the state of photon A of Alice and the state of photon B of
Bob, is constructed between Alice and Bob by the TC for quantum communication

photon) passes sequentially along path (S1: reflection → cavity 1 → S1: reflection),
the transformed state |ψ2 P1A2B is expressed as

S1 + quantum node 1 + S1: photon P  

|ψ1 P1A2B −−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−→ ψ2 P1A2B
1  + +

+
= √ |H P |ap 1A + |V P | ap 1A | ap 2B . (11)
2

Then, the state, |ψ3 P1A2B , in which the photon P moves along path (cavity 2 → S2:
transmission) is given by

quantum node 2 + S2: photon P  

|ψ2 P1A2B −−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−→ ψ3 P1A2B
1  + + + +

= √ |H P |ap 1A |ap 2B + |V P | ap 1A | ap 2B . (12)
2

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Table 2 All possible Bell states (Alice–Bob) can be generated by linear optical devices and two atoms
in cavities (quantum nodes) according to the pre-distributed Bell states (TC–Alice and TC–Bob), and the
TC’s measurement outcomes using single-qubit measurements

The probe The distributed TC’s measurement TC’s measurement outcomes of atom 1
photon P two Bell states outcome of photon P and atom 2
{|+a1 |+, az or {|+a1 |−, az or
|−, a1 |−, az } |−, a1 |+, az }
       
 ±  ±  +  +
|+, pp ap ap |H p  pp  pp
 1A  2B  AB  AB
 ±  ±  −  −
 ap  ap |V p  pp  pp
  1A   2B  AB  AB
 ±  ∓  −  −
ap ap |H p  pp  pp
 1A  2B  AB  AB
 ±  ∓  +  +
 ap  ap |V p  pp  pp
  1A   2B  AB   AB
 ±  ±  +  +
ap  ap |H p  pp  pp
 1A  2B  AB  AB
 ±  ±  −  −
 ap ap |V p  pp  pp
  1A  2B  AB  AB
 ±  ∓  −  −
ap  ap |H p  pp  pp
 1A  2B  AB  AB
 ±  ∓  +  +
 ap ap |V p  pp  pp
1A 2B AB AB

Subsequently, the photon P passes through the HWP and PBS in sequence. Then,
before performing single-qubit measurements, the final state, |ψf P12AB , of the system
between atoms (1 and 2) and photons (A, B and P) is given by

HWP→PBS: photon P
|ψ3 P1A2B −−−−−−−−−−−−→
1 
+

|ψf P12AB = |H P |aa 12 |+ + +
pp AB + | aa 12 | pp AB
 2 

−
+|V P |aa 12 |− − −
pp AB + | aa 12 | pp AB , (13)

√
±  , | ±  } ≡ {(|+, a |+, a ± |−, a |−, a )/ 2, (|+, a |−,
where {|aa 12 aa √12 1 2 1 2 1
a2 ± |−, a1 |+, a2 )/ 2} are Bell states between the atoms in the√ quantum nodes of
the TC. And {|±  , | ± pp AB } ≡ {(|H A |H B ± |V A |V B )/ 2, (|H A |V B ±
√ pp AB
|V A H B )/ 2} are Bell states between photons Alice and Bob. Finally, when
the TC measures probe photon P and the two atoms, 1 and 2, on the basis
of {|H , |V } and {|+, a|−, a} (three times single-qubit measurements), if the
result is {|V P , |+, a1 , |+, a2 }, then Alice and Bob can be shared as |− pp AB =
√
(|H A |H B − |V A |V B )/ 2 (a Bell state between photons A and B) in
Eq. (13). All possible Bell states between Alice and Bob are listed in Table 2, depending
on the results of single-qubit measurements (the polarization of probe photon P, and
the states of atom 1 and atom 2 in the quantum nodes). The second column in Table 2
lists the combinations of the pre-shared two Bell states (TC–Alice: atom 1–photon A,
and TC–Bob: atom 2–photon B), as in Eq. (10), before measurement of probe pho-

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ton P and the atoms by the TC. Consequently, we acquire the entanglement swapping
operation to construct an entanglement channel between two users for communication
via cavity QED.

4 Discussion and conclusion

We first discuss the experimental feasibility of our schemes. The experimental com-
ponents of our schemes are linear optical devices, HWPs, circulators and switches,
and CPF gates, which can be implemented via three-level atoms inside optical cavities
(cavity QED). The linear optical devices, HWPs, circulators, and switches are easy to
realize experimentally with high efficiency and performance for quantum information
processing schemes [43,45,48–54]. In our scheme, the critical elements are CPF gates
via cavity QED [41–65]. The feasible implementation of the CPF gate, which has high
fidelity and a low error rate in the intermediate coupling region, has been researched
under experimental conditions [41,43,60–65]. For the efficiency of the CPF gate (TC’s
quantum node), if we can take the experimental parameters (applied to our schemes)
T >> 1/κ for strong coupling g >> (κ, γ ), then the operation of photon-atom is
given by UC P F = exp(iπ |11| ⊗ |H H |) under the ideal condition after the inter-
action of a photon and three-level atom inside cavity, as described in Sect. 2. Then,
we can calculate the fidelity of the output state from the CPF gate between the ideal
state |ψId  and the practical state |ψPr  when the input state is |+, a ⊗ |+, p.
Figure 5 shows the fidelity of the CPF gate (quantum node) in our schemes according
to the differences in the atom-cavity coupling strength g/κ for T >> 1/κ and g >>
(κ, γ ). When g = 0.5κ, g = 1κ and g = 2.4κ with T ∼ 5 μs, the fidelities are 0.79,
0.922 and 0.984. These results mean that if g is getting larger than κ, then we can get
high fidelity (F → 1). According to the above analysis, considering a neutral atom

Fig. 5 Fidelity of the output states with respect to the differences in the atom-cavity coupling strength g/κ.
Here, we  T >> 1/κ and g >> (κ, γ ) and can calculate the fidelity of output state
have taken the condition
as F =  ψpr |ψId ψId |ψpr  where |ψId  and |ψpr  are the ideal and practical state form the CPF gate

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trapped in an optical cavity [41] with T = 240/κ(κ T >> 1), the photon pulse duration
(width), T /5 ∼ 1μs, and the fidelity, F, of the CPF gate can be calculated at about
99.9%. When the pulse (photon) is reflected from the cavity, the relative shape change
of the output pulse is smaller than 10−4 for g, varying from 6κ to κ. Also, in practice
(based on current experiments), the probability, Ps , of spontaneous emission, which
incurs the photon loss, is Ps = 3.2% for (g, κ, γ )/2π ≈ (25, 8, 5.2)MHz. Xiao et al.
[43] demonstrated that the atomic trivalent rare-earth ions Eu3+ (or Pr 3+ ) in a silica-
microsphere cavity with fiber tapers are utilized for longer coherence time and a lower
spontaneous emission rate, instead of the neutral atoms. Fidelity F and the probability
Ps of spontaneous emission error in the CPF gate can reach 99.998% and 10−8 for
the photon pulse duration T ∼ 3.0μs and (g, κ, γ )/2π ≈ (103 , 32, 10−3 )MHz.
Hereafter, in 2010, researchers show that CPF gate has high fidelity and a low error
rate in the intermediate coupling region after considering some realistic conditions
by controlling the reflectivity of the input single-photon pulse, as described in Ref.
[60]. Also, Gehr et al. [61] proposed schemes of the experiments to extract a single
atom from a Bose-Einstein condensate trapped inside a high-finesse cavity and to
achieve high fidelity readout of the hyperfine state of the extracted atom for the control
against changing the reflection and transmission of the cavity having an atom with
the resonant state. And a single atom 87 Rb is resonantly coupled to the cavity mode
with the maximal coupling strength g/2π ≈ 215MHz, while the cavity decay rate
κ/2π ≈ 53MHz and the atomic decay rate γ /2π ≈ 3MHz which are available
parameters for the experimental setup [61–63]. On the other hand, Englund et al.
[64] and Fushman et al. [65] treated the photonic crystal cavity as a single-sided
system, which is thermally isolated, for reliable the controlling cavity reflectivity and
the controlled phase shifts on reflected photon pulse. And they employed heating
laser to control the resonances of the cavity. In the experiments, the cavity decay rate
was κ/2π ≈ 16GHz (corresponding a quality factor Q = 104 ), and an estimated
spontaneous emission rate of γ /2π ≈ 0.2GHz with a strongly coupling g/2π ≈
16GHz. Therefore, in order to realize our schemes, in a real experiment, we employed
CPF gates, which have the experimental feasibility by cavity QED.
We proposed the generation of Bell and GHZ states and entanglement swapping via
linear optical devices and cavity QED for quantum communication. Our schemes have
the advantages besides the feasible implementation, as follows: (1) Quantum commu-
nication of users (Alice and Bob) in advance, TC plays the roles of the provider and
manager of channel. This means that only the authenticated users can use entangle-
ment channel to communicate after verification process of TC by information (the
initial state and measurement outcomes). Namely, our schemes guarantee the secure
channel for quantum communication by TC (having quantum nodes). (2) The pro-
posed schemes (via entanglement swapping) of constructing channel based on the
cavity QED can be operated to construct entanglement channels between users using
the single-qubit measurements and the probe photon without Bell state measurement.
Thus, we can enhance the feasibility to realize entanglement swapping by no Bell
state measurement (having the difficulty of the implementation). (3) We designed our
schemes to maximize the merits of physical resources (flying photon and the confined
atoms inside cavity). The TC possesses the quantum node (consisting of the CPF
gate), which can store quantum information in the long time during the processes for

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the generation (and distribution) of entangled states and the construction of entangle-
ment channel. Meanwhile, the users only retain the photons, which can be utilized for
fast and reliable communication owing to the readily manipulation, after distributed
entangled states and entanglement channel from the TC for quantum communication.
Consequently, our schemes can be efficient quantum information processing schemes
for quantum communication and experimentally realized with feasibility using current
technologies.

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant
funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (No. NRF-2015R1A2A2A03004152).

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