Patent ID: 8103172

Claim:
A distributed quantum relay architecture comprising a series of quantum teleportation stations including a first station and a plurality of relay stations, said first station including: a first photon pair source for using a laser signal to generate a first pair of entangled photons, a first state measurement device for measuring a state of a first photon of said first pair of photons, and an output for directing a second photon of said first pair of photons and a portion of the laser signal to one of said relay stations with a defined relationship between said second photon and said portion of the laser signal; and said one of said relay stations including: an input for receiving said second photon and said portion of the laser signal, and for using said defined relationship to distinguish between said second photon and said portion of the laser signal, a second photon pair source for using said portion of the laser signal to generate a second pair of entangled photons, said second pair of entangled photons including a first photon and a second photon, a state controlling device for receiving the second photon of the second pair of photons, and for controlling the state of the second photon of the second pair of photons based on the combined state of the second photon of the first pair of photons and the first photon of the second pair of photons, and an output for directing said second photon of said second pair of photons to another one of said relay stations.