Distillation of Gaussian Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering with noiseless linear amplification

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering is one of the most intriguing features of quantum mechanics and an important resource for quantum communication. For practical applications, it remains a challenge to protect EPR steering from decoherence due to its intrinsic difference from entanglement. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the distillation of Gaussian EPR steering and entanglement in lossy and noisy environments using measurement-based noiseless linear amplification. Different from entanglement distillation, the extension of steerable region happens in the distillation of EPR steering, besides the enhancement of steerabilities. We demonstrate that the two-way or one-way steerable region is extended after the distillation of EPR steering when the NLA is implemented based on Bob's or Alice's measurement results. We also show that the NLA helps to extract the secret key from the insecure region in one-sided device-independent quantum key distribution with EPR steering. Our work paves the way for quantum communication exploiting EPR steering in practical quantum channels.

Automated summary

This study experimentally demonstrates the distillation of Gaussian EPR steering and entanglement in lossy and noisy environments, and discovers the phenomenon of an extended steerable region in the distillation of EPR steering, which is different from entanglement distillation.