Physicists Build Single Atom Memory For Quantum Information

One of the building blocks for the straightway generation of quantum computing and communications systems is a way of storing and regenerating photonic qubits. These are usually encoded in the polarisation of photons.

Useful piece of kit

That's a useful piece of kit. For instance, such a device could form the basis of a quantum repeater, an enabling research for a quantum internet that could be vastly more capable than the one we have today.