Yan built the first quantum gas microscope for ultracold molecules and uses programmable tweezer arrays of fermionic atoms and dipolar molecules to realize custom quantum many-body Hamiltonians (Hubbard and spin models) with single-site resolution. This is primarily a quantum-simulation platform rather than a sensing one, so it is kept as an unpreferred/borderline entry; the same site-resolved tweezer/microscope toolkit underlies emerging proposals for distributed tweezer-array quantum sensors, which is the basis for inclusion.
Uses MBE thin-film growth combined with equilibrium and non-equilibrium ARPES to sense electronic structure at material interfaces. Directions: (1) non-equilibrium photoemission (tr-ARPES) to map ultrafast electron dynamics in topological and superconducting materials; (2) MBE engineering of interfacial superconductivity and topological orders at oxide and chalcogenide interfaces; (3) light-induced phase transitions probed by ultrafast ARPES as a sensing modality for correlated electron dynamics.
Yang's experimental physical chemistry lab designs new instrumentation to track single proteins, nanoparticles, and other emitters in three dimensions in real time within complex, heterogeneous environments, including a recent time-gated two-photon platform for high-speed 3D single-particle tracking. His group applies these single-molecule tracking and orientation-resolved imaging tools to protein conformational dynamics, functional nanostructures, and active-matter systems.
Yang works on the systems-level physics of silicon spin qubits: operating qubits at elevated temperatures (above one kelvin, where cryo-CMOS control electronics can be co-integrated), valley and spin-orbit engineering, and the electrical control of spin qubits without micromagnets. The 'hot qubit' programme in particular is an engineering argument about where the classical/quantum boundary should sit in a real machine. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — raising the operating temperature of a spin sensor while preserving coherence is the same trade a pT/sqrt(Hz) NV ensemble makes implicitly by working at room temperature; Yang's work is the silicon community's attempt to buy back some of that convenience. Borderline inclusion — this is quantum computing rather than sensing — retained under the inclusive rubric.
Yao works at the interface of theoretical and experimental many-body physics and quantum sensing, using dense NV-diamond spin ensembles and Hamiltonian engineering to push magnetometry and nanoscale NMR beyond standard-quantum-limit sensitivities. His work is a direct extension of the original NV ensemble quantum sensing experiments (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry) that achieved pT/√Hz sensitivity, adding many-body-enhanced protocols and error-correction-assisted sensing on top of that foundation.
Works on quantum optics and precision atomic physics, including superradiant lasing for next-generation atomic clocks and fundamental studies of light-atom interaction.
Tarik Yefsah's group at LKB studies strongly interacting ultracold Fermi gases. Research: (1) Fermi gas mixtures — quantum simulation of condensed matter phenomena (BCS-BEC crossover, Fermi polaron); (2) quantum gas microscope experiments imaging individual atoms in optical lattices; (3) novel quantum phases in Fermi-Hubbard systems ('fermionic waltz' publication 2026). Relevant to quantum simulation and quantum gas-based sensing.
Yelin is a theorist in quantum optics and quantum information whose work includes coherent line-narrowing theory for diamond NV centers, superradiant/cooperative effects in Rydberg systems and molecular ensembles, and quantum control of ultracold polar molecules. Included as theoretical support underpinning several quantum-sensing platforms (NV coherence, superradiant clocks) rather than as an experimentalist herself; she holds a joint appointment at the University of Connecticut.
Develops nanophotonic optical biosensors and spectral bioimaging techniques (metasurface/photonic-crystal based) for label-free, high-sensitivity molecular detection.
Yildiz uses nanometer-precision single-molecule fluorescence and optical/magnetic tweezers (FIONA-type localization) to resolve the stepping mechanisms of cytoskeletal motor proteins such as myosin, kinesin, and dynein in living cells.