A quantum gate between atoms and photons may help in scaling up quantum computers

The quantum computers of the future will be able to perform computations that cannot be done on today's computers. These may likely include the ability to crack the encryption that is currently used for secure electronic transactions, as well as the means to efficiently solve unwieldy problems in which the number of possible solutions increases exponentially. Research in the quantum optics lab of Prof. Barak Dayan in the Weizmann Institute of Science may be bringing the development of such computers one step closer by providing the "quantum gates" that are required for communication within and between such quantum computers.