AKAviv Karnieli
Technion – Israel Institute of TechnologyAndrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Exploring light-matter interactions on the quantum level

I am Aviv Karnieli, an Assistant Professor in the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Technion. I study theoretical quantum optics, investigating how photons interact with matter and how these interactions can unveil new fundamental effects and enable novel quantum technologies.

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Aviv Karnieli

About

Aviv Karnieli, PhD

I am an Assistant Professor in the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. My group develops theory at the intersection of quantum optics, nanophotonics, and nonlinear optics, with an emphasis on free-electron quantum optics, engineered light–matter interactions, many-body quantum systems, and quantum photonic technologies.

My academic training combines electrical engineering and physics. I earned two BSc degrees from Tel Aviv University: Electrical Engineering and Physics, graduating summa cum laude in both. I then completed an MSc in Physics under Prof. Ady Arie and entered the direct PhD track in Physics, jointly supervised by Prof. Arie and Prof. Ido Kaminer. My doctoral work explored quantum effects of electrons and photons, classical and quantum nonlinear optics, and optical analogies to quantum phenomena. For my doctoral work, I was awarded the Adams Fellowship and the Israel Physical Society prize for the best PhD thesis in Physics.

From 2023 to 2025, I was a postdoctoral researcher in Applied Physics at Stanford University with Prof. Shanhui Fan, where I expanded this work toward cavity quantum electrodynamics, many-body quantum optics, and programmable photonic systems.

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Research topics

01
Free-electron wavepacket passing near an atom inside a photonic cavity

Free-electron quantum optics

Using free electrons as quantum probes and mediators of light–matter interactions, from cavity QED to quantum sensing and photon–electron entanglement.

02
Four atoms coupled through a shared quantum field in a nonlinear waveguide

Many-body quantum optics

Engineering collective quantum dynamics in waveguides and cavities, where atoms interact through shared photonic modes, establishing long-range correlations.

03
Multimode squeezed light processed and separated by a self-configuring photonic network

Quantum photonic circuits

Developing self-configuring photonic networks that learn and extract squeezed supermodes, enabling scalable and resource-efficient processing of high-dimensional quantum light.

04
Two optical frequencies evolving through a skyrmion-like pseudospin texture in a nonlinear photonic medium

Quantum analogies in nonlinear optics

Using nonlinear optical interactions to emulate quantum dynamics, from synthetic magnetization textures and spin transport to topological Hall effects for light.

05
A green pump entering a designed nonlinear crystal and generating a shaped pair of correlated photons

Shaping quantum light

Designing nonlinear photonic structures to shape entangled photon pairs and engineer high-dimensional quantum states with tailored spatial and spectral correlations.

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Publications

Submitted

† denotes equal contribution

2026

  1. Shay Nadel, Amir Sivan, and Aviv Karnieli, “Dark state spectroscopy in nonlinear waveguide quantum electrodynamics,” arXiv:2606.11997, submitted (2026).
  2. Jakob M. Grzesik, Aviv Karnieli, Charles Roques-Carmes, Dylan S. Black, Trung Kiên Lê, Olav Solgaard, Shanhui Fan, Jelena Vučković, “A general framework for interactions between electron beams and quantum optical systems,” arXiv:2601.21385, submitted (2026).
  3. Paul-Alexis Mor, Anne R. Kroo, Carson G. Valdez, Marko Šimić, Aviv Karnieli, Gabriele Cavicchioli, Zhanghao Sun, Vittorio Grimaldi, Shanhui Fan, Olav Solgaard, David A. B. Miller, and Charles Roques-Carmes, “Separating partially coherent light,” arXiv:2603.15517, submitted (2026).
  4. Amit Kam, Charles Roques-Carmes, Shai Tsesses, and Aviv Karnieli, “Quantum Skyrmions in Mixed States of Light and their Nested Topology,” arXiv:2604.23571, submitted (2026).

Published & accepted

† denotes equal contribution

2026

  1. Jakob M. Grzesik†, Dominic Catanzaro†, Charles Roques-Carmes†, Eric I. Rosenthal, Guido L. van de Stolpe, Aviv Karnieli, Giovanni Scuri, Souvik Biswas, Kenneth J. Leedle, Dylan S. Black, Robert L. Byer, Ido Kaminer, R. Joel England, Shanhui Fan, Olav Solgaard, and Jelena Vučković, “Toward quantum sensing of electron beams using solid-state spins,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 123, e2531808123 (2026).
  2. Amit Kam, Shai Tsesses, Lior Fridman, Yigal Ilin, Amir Sivan, Guy Sayer, Stav Lotan, Kobi Cohen, Amit Shaham, Liat Nemirovsky-Levy, Larisa Popilevsky, Aviv Karnieli, Meir Orenstein, Mordechai Segev, and Guy Bartal, “Quantum skyrmions and high dimensional entanglement mediated by nanophotonics,” eLight 6, 13 (2026).
  3. Joshua Foley Comer, Ofir Yesharim, Sarika Mishra, Shashi Prabhakar, Eyal Rozenberg, Aviv Karnieli, Ravindra P. Singh, and Ady Arie, “Inverse-design-based experimental generation of high-dimensional spatially entangled light,” Optica Quantum 4, 179 (2026).
  4. Aviv Karnieli†, Paul-Alexis Mor†, Charles Roques-Carmes†, Eran Lustig, Jamison Sloan, Jelena Vučković, David A. B. Miller, and Shanhui Fan, “Variational processing of multimode squeezed light,” PRX Quantum 7, 020311 (2026).
  5. Offek Tziperman, David Nabben, Ron Ruimy, Yiqi Fang, Ethan Nussinson, Jacob Holder, Alexey Gorlach, Daniel Kazenwadel, Aviv Karnieli, Ido Kaminer, and Peter Baum, “Two-electron quantum walks probe entanglement and decoherence in an electron microscope,” Nature Physics (2026).
  6. Clarisse Woodahl, Melanie Murillo, Charles Roques-Carmes, Aviv Karnieli, David A. B. Miller, and Olav Solgaard, “On-Chip Laser-Driven Free-Electron Spin Polarizer,” Physical Review Letters 136, 063802 (2026).

2025

  1. Shai Tsesses and Aviv Karnieli, “Electrically-Tuned Light Topology,” News and Views, Nature Physics 21, 1869 (2025).
  2. Trung Kiên Lê, Daniil M. Lukin, Charles Roques-Carmes, Aviv Karnieli, Eran Lustig, Melissa A. Guidry, Shanhui Fan, and Jelena Vučković, “Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics in Finite-Bandwidth Squeezed Reservoir,” Physical Review Applied 24, 034053 (2025). Editor’s Suggestion.
  3. Xihang Shi, Wen Wei Lee, Aviv Karnieli, Leon M. Lohse, Alexey Gorlach, Lee Wei Wesley Wong, Tim Salditt, Shanhui Fan, Ido Kaminer, and Liang Jie Wong, “Quantum Nanophotonics with Energetic Particles: X-rays and Free Electrons,” Progress in Quantum Electronics 102, 100577 (2025).
  4. Charles Roques-Carmes†, Aviv Karnieli†, David A. B. Miller, and Shanhui Fan, “Automated modal analysis of entanglement with bipartite self-configuring optics,” ACS Photonics 12, 3285 (2025).
  5. Shani Izhak, Aviv Karnieli, Ofir Yesharim, Shai Tsesses, and Ady Arie, “Pseudospin transverse localization of light in an optical disordered spin-glass phase,” Physical Review Letters 134, 123803 (2025).
  6. Aviv Karnieli, Offek Tziperman, Charles Roques-Carmes, and Shanhui Fan, “Decoherence-free many-body Hamiltonians in nonlinear waveguide quantum electrodynamics,” Physical Review Research 7, L012014 (2025).
  7. Ron Ruimy†, Aviv Karnieli†, and Ido Kaminer, “Free-electron quantum optics,” Nature Physics 21, 193 (2025).

2024

  1. Alexey Gorlach, Solomon Malka, Aviv Karnieli, Raphael Dahan, Eliahu Cohen, Avi Pe’er, and Ido Kaminer, “Photonic quantum state tomography using free electrons,” Physical Review Letters 133, 250801 (2024).
  2. Aviv Karnieli†, Charles Roques-Carmes†, Nicholas Rivera, and Shanhui Fan, “Strong coupling and single-photon nonlinearity in free-electron quantum optics,” ACS Photonics 11, 3401 (2024).
  3. Aviv Karnieli, Nicholas Rivera, Valerio Di Giulio, Ady Arie, F. Javier García de Abajo, and Ido Kaminer, “Modeling quantum optical phenomena using transition currents,” Applied Physics Reviews 11, 031305 (2024).
  4. Dolev Roitman, Aviv Karnieli, Shai Tsesses, Zahava Barkay, and Ady Arie, “Coherent radiation at visible wavelengths from sub-keV electron beams,” Optics Letters 49, 2013 (2024).
  5. Aviv Karnieli†, Shai Tsesses†, Renwen Yu, Nicholas Rivera, Ady Arie, Ido Kaminer, and Shanhui Fan, “Universal and ultrafast quantum computation based on free-electron–polariton blockade,” PRX Quantum 5, 010339 (2024).
  6. Shani Izhak, Aviv Karnieli, Ofir Yesharim, Shai Tsesses, and Ady Arie, “All-optical spin valve effect in nonlinear optics,” Optics Letters 49, 1025 (2024).
  7. Lee Wei Wesley Wong, Xihang Shi, Aviv Karnieli, Jeremy Lim, Suraj Kumar, Sergio Carbajo, Ido Kaminer, and Liang Jie Wong, “Free electron crystals for enhanced x-ray radiation,” Light: Science & Applications 13, 29 (2024).

2023

  1. Inbar Hurvitz, Aviv Karnieli, and Ady Arie, “Frequency-domain engineering of bright squeezed vacuum for continuous-variable quantum information,” Optics Express 31, 20387 (2023).
  2. Aviv Karnieli and Shanhui Fan, “Jaynes-Cummings interaction between low energy free-electrons and cavity photons,” Science Advances 9, eadh2425 (2023).
  3. Aviv Karnieli†, Shai Tsesses†, Renwen Yu†, Nicholas Rivera, Zhexin Zhao, Ady Arie, Shanhui Fan, and Ido Kaminer, “Quantum sensing of strongly coupled light-matter systems using free electrons,” Science Advances 9, eadd2349 (2023).

2022

  1. Roy Shiloh, Norbert Schönenberger, Yuval Adiv, Ron Ruimy, Aviv Karnieli, Tyler Hughes, R. Joel England, Kenneth Leedle, Dylan Black, Zhexin Zhao, Pietro Musumeci, Robert Byer, Ady Arie, Ido Kaminer, and Peter Hommelhoff, “Miniature light-driven on-chip nanophotonic particle acceleration,” Advances in Optics and Photonics 14, 862 (2022).
  2. Aviv Karnieli†, Dolev Roitman†, Matthias Liebtrau†, Shai Tsesses†, Nika van Nielen, Ido Kaminer, Ady Arie, and Albert Polman, “Cylindrical metalens for the generation and focusing of free-electron radiation,” Nano Letters 22, 5641 (2022).
  3. Eyal Rozenberg, Aviv Karnieli, Ofir Yesharim, Joshua Foley-Comer, Sivan Trajtenberg-Mills, Daniel Freedman, Alexander Bronstein, and Ady Arie, “Inverse design of spontaneous parametric downconversion for generation of high-dimensional qudits,” Optica 9, 602 (2022).
  4. Giuseppe Di Domenico, Shaul Pearl, Aviv Karnieli, Sivan Trajtenberg-Mills, Irit Juwiler, Hagai S. Eisenberg, and Ady Arie, “Direct generation of high brightness path entangled N00N states using structured crystals and shaped pump beams,” Optics Express 30, 21535 (2022).
  5. Ofir Yesharim, Aviv Karnieli, Steven Jackel, Giuseppe Di Domenico, Sivan Trajtenberg-Mills, and Ady Arie, “Observation of the all-optical Stern-Gerlach effect in nonlinear optics,” Nature Photonics 16, 582 (2022).

2021

  1. Raphael Dahan†, Alexey Gorlach†, Urs Haeusler†, Aviv Karnieli†, Ori Eyal, Peyman Yousefi, Mordechai Segev, Ady Arie, Gadi Eisenstein, Peter Hommelhoff, and Ido Kaminer, “Imprinting the quantum statistics of photons on free electrons,” Science, abj7813 (2021).
  2. Aviv Karnieli, Yongyao Li, and Ady Arie, “The geometric phase in nonlinear frequency conversion,” Frontiers of Physics 17, 12301 (2021). Review paper.
  3. Aviv Karnieli, Nicholas Rivera, Ady Arie, and Ido Kaminer, “Superradiance and subradiance due to quantum interference of entangled free electrons,” Physical Review Letters 127, 060403 (2021).
  4. Aviv Karnieli, Nicholas Rivera, Ady Arie, and Ido Kaminer, “The coherence of light is fundamentally tied to the quantum coherence of the emitting particle,” Science Advances 7, eabf8096 (2021).
  5. Aviv Karnieli, Shai Tsesses, Guy Bartal, and Ady Arie, “Emulating spin transport with nonlinear optics, from high-order skyrmions to the topological Hall effect,” Nature Communications 12, 1092 (2021).
  6. Adi Ben Hayun, Ori Reinhardt, Jonathan Nemirovsky, Aviv Karnieli, Nicholas Rivera, and Ido Kaminer, “Shaping quantum photonic states using free electrons,” Science Advances 7, eabe4270 (2021).
  7. Chen Mechel, Yaniv Kurman, Aviv Karnieli, Nicholas Rivera, Ady Arie, and Ido Kaminer, “Quantum correlations in electron microscopy,” Optica 8, 70–78 (2021).

2020

  1. Yongyao Li, Ofir Yesharim, Inbar Hurvitz, Aviv Karnieli, Shenhe Fu, Gil Porat, and Ady Arie, “Adiabatic geometric phase in fully nonlinear three-wave mixing,” Physical Review A 101, 033807 (2020).
  2. Sivan Trajtenberg-Mills, Aviv Karnieli, Noa Voloch-Bloch, Eli Megidish, Hagai S. Eisenberg, and Ady Arie, “Simulating Correlations of Structured Spontaneously Down-Converted Photon Pairs,” Lasers & Photonics Reviews 14, 1900321 (2020).

2019

  1. Aviv Karnieli†, Sivan Trajtenberg-Mills†, Giuseppe Di Domenico, and Ady Arie, “Experimental observation of the geometric phase in nonlinear frequency conversion,” Optica 6, 1401 (2019).
  2. Roei Remez†, Aviv Karnieli†, Sivan Trajtenberg-Mills, Niv Shapira, Ido Kaminer, Yossi Lereah, and Ady Arie, “Observing the Quantum Wave Nature of Free Electrons through Spontaneous Emission,” Physical Review Letters 123, 060401 (2019).

2018

  1. Aviv Karnieli, Tomer Markovich, and David Andelman, “Surface pressure of charged colloids at the air/water interface,” Langmuir 34, 13322 (2018). Undergraduate research project.
  2. Aviv Karnieli and Ady Arie, “Frequency domain Stern-Gerlach effect for photonic qubits and qutrits,” Optica 5, 1297–1303 (2018).
  3. Aviv Karnieli and Ady Arie, “All-optical Stern-Gerlach Effect,” Physical Review Letters 120, 053901 (2018).
  4. Aviv Karnieli and Ady Arie, “Fully controllable adiabatic geometric phase in nonlinear optics,” Optics Express 26, 4920–4932 (2018). Highlighted in Spotlight on Optics.

2017

  1. Aviv Karnieli, Sivan Trajtenberg-Mills, Benoit Boulanger, and Ady Arie, “Modified quasi-phase-matching and spectral shaping in a nonlinear whispering gallery mode resonator,” Journal of the Optical Society of America B 34, 1971–1980 (2017). Undergraduate research project.
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Quantum optics theory group