The first realizations of “cluster states” and cluster-state quantum computation are reported in Nature this week (10 March issue, pp169-176).

This is the first experimental demonstration of the “one-way quantum computer,” representing a significant move from theory to reality for an alternative approach to quantum computing first proposed in 2001.

The experiment demonstrates that modifications to the entangled photons in such a state allow the system to encode information before computations begin and imprint a quantum logic circuit on the state, destroying its entanglement and making the process irreversible. Hence the name “one-way quantum computing” for the system.