Single-photon-assisted entanglement concentration of partially entangled multiphoton W states with linear optics

We propose a single-photon-assisted entanglement concentration protocol (ECP) for nonlocal N-photon systems in a partially entangled pure W-class state with linear optical elements. Only one of the N parties in quantum communication prepares an ancillary photon and operates the entanglement concentration process for picking up the standard N-photon W state from each partially entangled pure W-class state by choosing the two-mode instances from a polarization beam splitter. Compared with other ECPs for W-class states, our protocol has some advantages. First, it requires only linear optical elements. Second, it requires an N-photon system and an ancillary photon for each round of concentration, not two systems. Third, only one party asks other parties to retain or discard their photons. All these advantages make our ECP more feasible and more convenient than others. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America