Yale Physicists working on making Quantum Computers a reality have created a chip that measures and stores microwave photons. The article is much more detailed. I recommend referring to it if this sort of thing interests you. The general idea, however, is that the Yale Institute of Nanoscience and Quantum Engineering created an artificial 'atom' of aluminum atoms. This artificial atom was bombarded with microwaves. Somehow the chip they created stores and measures the individual microwave photons. It turns out that microwave photons are very much like photons of light, except larger ('over 1cm in length') and with much less energy. The idea I get from the article is that the whole experimental setup is basically making a huge mock up of the quantum processes currently being studied elsewhere in order to gain some further insights.

David Schuster, who is the lead author, believes that microwave photons can be used to directly transmit quantum information removing the need for quantum computers to use non-quantum parts to transmit information -- thus slowing the computer and mucking up the process.

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