Entanglement-verified time distribution in a metropolitan network

Abstract

The precise synchronization of distant clocks is a fundamental requirement for a wide range of applications. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a novel approach of quantum clock synchronization utilizing entangled and correlated photon pairs generated by a quantum dot at telecom wavelength. By distributing these entangled photons through a metropolitan fiber network in the Stockholm area and measuring the remote correlations, we achieve a synchronization accuracy of tens of picoseconds by leveraging the tight time correlation between the entangled photons. We show that our synchronization scheme is secure against spoofing attacks by performing a remote quantum state tomography to verify the origin of the entangled photons. We measured a distributed maximum entanglement fidelity of $0.817\pm 0.040$ to the $|{\Phi }^{+}⟩$ Bell state and a concurrence of $0.660\pm 0.086$. These results highlight the potential of quantum dot-generated entangled pairs as a shared resource for secure time synchronization and quantum key distribution in real-world quantum networks.

13 pages, 3 figures

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