Surface Code Quantum Communication

Quantum communication typically involves a linear chain of repeater stations, each capable of reliable local quantum computation and connected to their nearest neighbors by unreliable communication links. The communication rate of existing protocols is low as two-way classical communication is used. By using a surface code across the repeater chain and generating Bell pairs between neighboring stations with probability of heralded success greater than 0.65 and fidelity greater than 0.96, we show that two-way communication can be avoided and quantum information can be sent over arbitrary distances with arbitrarily low error at a rate limited only by the local gate speed. This is achieved by using the unreliable Bell pairs to measure nonlocal stabilizers and feeding heralded failure information into post-transmission error correction. Our scheme also applies when the probability of heralded success is arbitrarily low.