There is no doubt that we are moving steadily toward an era of technologies based on quantum physics. But to get there, we first have to master the ability to make light interact with matter – or more technically, photons with atoms.
This has already been achieved to some degree, giving us the cutting-edge field of cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED), which is already used in quantum networks and quantum information processing. Nonetheless, there are still a long way to go. Current light-matter interactions are limited to individual atoms, which limits our ability to study them in the sort of complex systems involved in quantum-based technologies.
Source: “Light-matter interactions propel quantum technologies forward”, EPFL News
