Ramanujan Auditorium

Quantum mechanics with patterns of light

Andrew Forbes

The University of the Witwatersrand

Structured light is an exploding topic, giving rise to new applications, from classical to quantum. The structuring can be done with classical beams, single photons or entangled states, offering access to the infinite alphabet of patterns of light
for high-dimension quantum states. In this talk I will review the recent progress in quantum entanglement of photons in their spatial degree of freedom. I will explain how to create high-dimensional quantum states in the laboratory, how to measure them, and
what the present state of the art is in terms of applications. In particular, I will outline the advantages and disadvantages of using such entangled states as a means to encode information for secure quantum communication channels, and highlight the open
challenges that remain.