Entropy 2013, 15, 1776-1820; doi:10.3390/e15051776 OPEN ACCESS entropy ISSN 1099-4300 www.mdpi.com/journal/entropy Review Quantum Entanglement Concentration Based on Nonlinear Optics for Quantum Communications Yu-Bo Sheng 1;2;* and Lan Zhou 2;3 1 Institute of Signal Processing Transmission, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210003, China 2 Key Lab of Broadband Wireless Communication and Sensor Network Technology, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Ministry of Education, Nanjing 210003, China 3 College of Mathematics & Physics, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210003, China; E-Mail:
[email protected] (L.Z.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
[email protected]; Tel./Fax: +86-025-83492417. Received: 14 March 2013; in revised form: 3 May 2013 / Accepted: 8 May 2013 / Published: 16 May 2013 Abstract: Entanglement concentration is of most importance in long distance quantum communication and quantum computation. It is to distill maximally entangled states from pure partially entangled states based on the local operation and classical communication. In this review, we will mainly describe two kinds of entanglement concentration protocols. One is to concentrate the partially entangled Bell-state, and the other is to concentrate the partially entangled W state. Some protocols are feasible in current experimental conditions and suitable for the optical, electric and quantum-dot and optical microcavity systems. Keywords: quantum entanglement; entanglement concentration; quantum communication 1. Introduction Quantum communication and quantum computation have attracted much attention over the last 20 years, due to the absolute safety in the information transmission for quantum communication and the super fast factoring for quantum computation [1,2].