Investigating light-matter interactions and new physics in tightly focused optical tweezers and cavity QED systems. Systems involving atoms coupled to resonators or waveguides are intriguing as they allow for the study of atom-atom and photon-atom interactions in the strong coupling regime. Individual trapped atoms, whether in single or multiple traps arranged in one, two, or three-dimensional arrays, are excellent for studying quantum many-body physics and collective effects with custom-designed light-atom and dipole-dipole interactions.

Enabling communication between quantum devices, such as clocks, computers, and simulators, holds the potential to greatly enhance their applications, including distributed quantum sensing and computing. The key to this is establishing efficient communication channels between these quantum devices, even over long distances, which involves exchanging qubits encoded in light at telecom wavelengths through optical fibers.  Our goal is to link a long-lived "matter" qubit with resonant light, such as heralded single photons or photons that form entangled pairs.