Non-Gaussian Motional States in Anharmonic Optical Tweezers

Neutral-atom optical tweezers are a powerful platform for quantum science, yet the motional degree of freedom has often been treated as a source of noise rather than being coherently manipulated as a quantum resource. Here, we demonstrate control of the atom's quantum motion by exploiting the intrinsic anharmonicity of optical tweezers to generate and manipulate non-Gaussian motional states using only modulation of the trap position and depth. We show that time-averaging of the tweezer position enables dynamic control of the effective trap anharmonicity, allowing continuous tuning between anharmonic and harmonic regimes. At larger anharmonicities, we prepare qubits encoded in the motional Fock subspaces. At lower anharmonicities, we aim to access more complex motional states, including Schrödinger cat states. By promoting motion from a source of noise to a controllable quantum resource, this work opens new avenues for exploring bosonic modes and continuous-variable quantum information in neutral-atom platforms.