We put forward a simple scheme for realizing robust optically controlled quantum gates for scalable atomic quantum processors by driving the qubits with optical standing waves.
Compared to existing strategies based on travelling wave lasers, atoms localized close to the antinodes of an optical standing wave can be made to realize phase-controlled quantum operations, even without the need for tight focusing of the control lasers, that are inherently much less sensitive to atomic position variations and atomic motion, thus providing a route to circumvent several dominant errors for atom based quantum processors.