https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181024095345.htm

With a trick, Bonn physicists nevertheless managed to achieve a 90-percent score rate in a similar situation. However, their player was almost 10 billion times smaller than the German star striker -- and much less predictable.

It was a rubidium atom that the researchers had irradiated with laser light. The atom had absorbed radiation energy and had entered an excited state. This has a defined lifespan. The atom subsequently releases the absorbed energy by emitting a particle of light: a photon.