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  • Review Article
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Progress in quantum structured light

Nature Photonics volume 19, pages 1291–1300 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Photons can be structured in space and time, blending quantum information and structured light in the context of high-dimensional and multidimensional entanglement. This opens a pathway to richly textured Hilbert spaces, high-information-capacity photons and exciting applications that exploit the new multiple-degrees-of-freedom modalities of quantum structured light. Progress has accelerated of late, driven by a modern toolkit comprising both bulk and on-chip solutions, taming dimensionality and unlocking exciting applications from imaging and sensing to networks and communication. In this Review we aim to capture this exciting inflection point, where quantum structured light can finally be harnessed to realize its full potential.

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Fig. 1: High-dimensional and multidimensional quantum structured light.
Fig. 2: Detection and characterization of high-dimensional states.
Fig. 3: Toolkit for high-dimensional quantum structured light.
Fig. 4: Applications of quantum structured light.

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Acknowledgements

A.F. thanks SA QuTI for financial support. A.V. acknowledges financial support from the Ramón y Cajal Fellowship RYC2023-043066-I, funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and FSE+.

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  1. School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Andrew Forbes & Fazilah Nothlawala

  2. Departament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain

    Adam Vallés

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Forbes, A., Nothlawala, F. & Vallés, A. Progress in quantum structured light. Nat. Photon. 19, 1291–1300 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-025-01795-x

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