We study the feasibility of meaningful proof-of-principle demonstrations of several quantum repeater protocols with photon (single-photon and photon-pair) sources and atomic-ensemble based quantum memories. We take into account non-unit memory efficiencies that decay exponentially with time, which complicates the calculation of repeater rates. We discuss implementations based on quantum dots, parametric down-conversion, rare-earth-ion doped crystals, and Rydberg atoms. Our results provide guidance for the near-term implementation of long-distance quantum repeater demonstrations, suggesting that such demonstrations are within reach of current technology.
@article{arxiv.1912.01702,
title = {Near-term performance of quantum repeaters with imperfect ensemble-based quantum memories},
author = {Yufeng Wu and Jianlong Liu and Christoph Simon},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1912.01702},
year = {2020}
}