Deterministic arbitrary multi-photon entanglement sharing via noisy channels

We present an efficient strategy for sharing multipartite polarization entanglement between distant locations via the noisy channel assisted by the time-bin degree of freedom. We demonstrate an entanglement purification protocol for the three-qubit Greenberge–Horne–Zeilinger state and an entanglement distribution protocol for the three-qubit W state. We also generalize the protocol to distribute arbitrary N-photon polarization states to N distant locations. Our schemes do not consume a large number of less-entangled systems and the remote parties can share the desired state in a deterministic way with 100% fidelity in principle. These advantages make our method useful and practical in long-distance quantum communication. (letter)