The ability to control individual quantum particles has expanded the role of neutral atoms, from platforms for studying collective quantum matter to building blocks for quantum sensors, simulators, and computers. Tightly focused beams of light, known as optical tweezers, allow us to trap individual atoms and dynamically control their positions, tunneling between traps, and interactions. I will describe our work using optical tweezers to manipulate the quantum motion of ultracold fermionic atoms. I will begin with spatial adiabatic passage, a counterintuitive process in which an atom is transferred between two separated traps while almost entirely avoiding occupation of the intermediate trap. I will then show how related tools can be used to split, guide, and recombine atomic matter waves to form highly programmable interferometers. Such interferometers offer new routes toward precision sensing, tests of quantum mechanics involving clocks, and entanglement-enhanced measurements. I will conclude by discussing neutral-atom quantum computation, where motion plays a dual role: controlled collisions can generate entanglement, while uncontrolled motion can limit gate fidelity and circuit depth. I will present recent approaches to realizing faster collision-based gates and to refocusing the motional excitation induced when optical traps are switched off during Rydberg gates. These examples illustrate a broader lesson: rather than treating atomic motion merely as a disturbance, we can harness it as a versatile quantum resource.
Yoav Sagi is an Associate Professor of Physics at the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology and co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Q-Factor, a company developing scalable neutral-atom quantum computers. He is an experimental physicist whose research focuses on quantum many-body phenomena in ultracold Fermi gases and on the use of neutral atoms in optical tweezers for quantum computation, simulation, and sensing. He earned a B.Sc. in physics and mathematics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an M.Sc. in physics from the Technion, both magna cum laude. He completed his Ph.D. with Nir Davidson at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where his thesis received the John F. Kennedy Award. He subsequently worked with Deborah Jin on degenerate Fermi gases as a Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellow at JILA before joining the Technion faculty in 2014.