Generating a macroscopic W-type entangled coherent state of quantum memories in circuit QED

We propose a way to generate a macroscopic W-type entangled coherent state of quantum memories in circuit QED. The memories considered here are nitrogen-vacancy center ensembles (NVEs) each located in a different cavity. This proposal does not require initially preparing each NVE in a coherent state instead of a ground state, which significantly reduces the experimental difficulty. For most of the operation time, each cavity remains in a vacuum state, thus decoherence caused by the cavity decay is greatly suppressed. Moreover, only one external-cavity coupler qubit is needed, and the operation time does not increase with the number of NVEs and cavities. The prepared W state can be stored via NVEs for a long time, mapped onto cavities, and then transferred into a quantum network via optical fibers each linked to a cavity, for potential applications in quantum communication. The method is quite general and can be applied to generate the proposed W state with atomic ensembles or other spin ensembles distributed in different cavities.