Apr 10, 2014 11:09 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Scientists from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new "switch" that could do wonders for quantum computing systems.

According to an MIT press release, the scientists have used a laser to pair off single atoms of a metal known as rubidium with a light particle, or photon. Published in the journal Nature, the study found this creates a switch for the atom and photon to achieve quantum-level computing.

"This is a major advance of this system," study co-author Vladan Vuletić, a professor in MIT's Department of Physics and Research Laboratory for Electronics (RLE), said in the release. "We have demonstrated basically an atom can switch the phase of a photon. And the photon can switch the phase of an atom."

Interaction with the atom allows a photon to switch between its two polarization states. The photon does the same for the atom, allowing it to change between its two phases, described as "ground" and "excited."

The scientists believe this new mechanism will enhance quantum computing by making it more efficient. By having a high volume of atoms within a field of light, they believe they can process information much more quickly.

"You can now imagine having several atoms placed there, to make several of these devices - which are only a few hundred nanometers thick, 1,000 times thinner than a human hair - and couple them together to make them exchange information," Vuletić said.

The Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Germany is running a parallel research project, according to the MIT release. They are currently using mirrors to form quantum gates able to allow the photon-atom interaction to change directions.

"The Harvard/MIT experiment is a masterpiece of quantum nonlinear optics, demonstrating impressively the preponderance of single atoms over many atoms for the control of quantum light fields," Gerhard Rempe, a researcher on the Max Planck Institute team, said in the release. "The coherent manipulation of an atom coupled to a photonic crystal resonator constitutes a breakthrough and complements our own work... with an atom in a dielectric mirror resonator."

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