We present an efficient quantum repeater protocol that uses coupled systems of quantum-dot spins and optical microcavities, in which the spatial entanglement of a photon system can be converted into polarization entanglement of electron spins. The bit-flip and phase-flip errors on the polarization state of each qubit caused by noisy channels can be rejected, without resorting to additional qubits. Two remote parties can obtain the maximally entangled electron-spin state and store it deterministically after the transmission of photons, independent of the noise parameters. The transmission distance of photons will not be limited by the coherence time of memory units in the present protocol, unlike the previous atomic-ensemble-based quantum repeater protocols, and it can be applied directly in long-distance quantum-communication protocols.

• Received 8 April 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.85.062311