Optical and Quantum Sensing and Precision Metrology II
Structured light at small scales: customized nano-interactions for quantum cryptography and sensing
Eileen Otte, Asma Fallah, William A. Jarrett, Alexander D. White, Giovanni Scuri, Sungjun Eun, Nicholas A. Güsken, Hossein Taghinejad, James G. Analytis, Jelena Vuckovic A, Mark L. Brongersma
Light structured in amplitude, phase, and polarization offers new routes for encoding quantum information and probing matter at the nanoscale. We present two complementary approaches to harnessing structured-light–matter interactions for quantum technologies. First, we introduce an inversely designed vector beam decoder (VBD) that enables on-chip manipulation of non-paraxial modes with complex 3D polarization, expanding the Hilbert space for high-dimensional quantum key distribution (HD QKD) and integrated quantum photonic platforms. Second, we develop a theoretical framework for controlling multipolar excitations of a single nanoparticle using tightly focused Generalized Cylindrical Vector Beams (GCVBs). This approach allows selective excitation and suppression of dipolar and quadrupolar modes as well as their superpositions, offering tunable nanoscale control. Together, these advances establish structured light as a versatile tool for integrated quantum devices and precision sensing.
Light structured in amplitude, phase, and polarization offers new routes for encoding quantum information and probing matter at the nanoscale. We present two complementary approaches to harnessing structured-light–matter interactions for quantum technologies. First, we introduce an inversely designed vector beam decoder (VBD) that enables on-chip manipulation of non-paraxial modes with complex 3D polarization, expanding the Hilbert space for high-dimensional quantum key distribution (HD QKD) and integrated quantum photonic platforms. Second, we develop a theoretical framework for controlling multipolar excitations of a single nanoparticle using tightly focused Generalized Cylindrical Vector Beams (GCVBs). This approach allows selective excitation and suppression of dipolar and quadrupolar modes as well as their superpositions, offering tunable nanoscale control. Together, these advances establish structured light as a versatile tool for integrated quantum devices and precision sensing.
Manipulating photoluminescence from solid-state quantum emitters (QEs) on demand is of central importance for advanced quantum nanophotonic technologies. In comparison with conventional free-space approaches relying on bulky optical components, emitter-integrated metasurfaces provide a compact and efficient route for shaping photon emission directly at the source. Recent progress has established a common platform in which QE-excited surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are transformed by surrounding metasurfaces into free-space radiation with tailored propagation direction, polarization state, relative intensity, and spatial structure. This review highlights two complementary strategies that have recently been utilized for shaping quantum emission. The first is emitter-coupled meta-optics, which enables versatile photon sources with arbitrary polarization states, off-normal directionality, and multichannel emission by means of phase-engineered anisotropic meta-atoms. The second is vectorial scattering holography, including multiplexed implementations, which allows direct reconstruction of arbitrarily structured and polarization-multiplexed emission from individual nanodiamonds. Together, these approaches unlock unprecedented degrees of freedom for nanoscale light shaping and provide a promising route toward scalable quantum photonic devices and high-capacity information processing.
Recent progress in meta-optics, particularly the development of metasurfaces, has enabled compact, tunable, and integrable control over the amplitude, phase, polarization, and wavefront of light, thereby allowing a paradigm shift in traditional optical science and engineering. In parallel, the ability to generate and precisely manipulate nonclassical light is central to quantum optics, enabling key functionalities in secure quantum communication, precision measurement, and scalable quantum computation. This review aims to bridge these two rapidly advancing fields by presenting recent progress in the application of structured materials to the manipulation of quantum states of light. We begin by introducing the concept of singular optics, followed by a discussion of various families of spatially and temporally structured beams that form the foundation for many of the phenomena explored in quantum photonics. Next, we revisit the theoretical framework of quantum optics, including the formalism of photon quantization and the principles governing quantum frequency conversion. We then examine how metasurfaces can be engineered to enable highly efficient nonlinear quantum processes, including both up-conversion and down-conversion, thereby offering new approaches for generating and controlling complex quantum states. Furthermore, we discuss the crucial role of structured materials in shaping the properties of quantum light and in applications such as quantum ghost imaging. The review concludes by identifying emerging directions for integrating meta-optical platforms with quantum systems, highlighting their potential for scalable manipulation of nonclassical light at the nanoscale.
Structured photons are nowadays an important resource in classical and quantum optics due to the richness of properties they show under propagation, focusing, and in their interaction with matter. Vectorial modes of light in particular, a class of modes where the polarization varies across the beam profile, have already been used in several areas ranging from microscopy to quantum information. One of the key ingredients needed to exploit the full potential of complex light in the quantum domain is the control of quantum interference, a crucial resource in fields like quantum communication, sensing, and metrology. Here we report a tunable Hong-Ou-Mandel interference between vectorial modes of light. We demonstrate how a properly designed spin-orbit device can be used to control quantum interference between vectorial modes of light by simply adjusting the device parameters and no need of interferometric setups. We believe our result can find applications in fundamental research and quantum technologies based on structured light by providing a new tool to control quantum interference in a compact, efficient, and robust way.
Vectorial modes of light, a type of structured light where the polarization varies across the beam profile, are a useful tool both in classical and quantum applications. In quantum communication, for instance, these modes enable rotational invariant protocols, therefore overcoming the requirement of a shared reference frame between users. Moreover, structured light can be a resource for enhanced sensing purposes as for instance in the “photonic gears” technique. This quantum inspired scheme enables a boost of sensitivity in mechanical displacements measurement thanks to a bidirectional mapping between the polarization state and a properly tailored vectorial mode of a paraxial light beam. Finally, we will discuss how quantum interference can be controlled and tailored for structured light modes, therefore providing a key ingredient for exploiting the full potential of complex light in the quantum domain.
Quantum nanophotonics merges the precision of nanoscale light manipulation with the capabilities of quantum technologies, offering a pathway for enhanced light-matter interaction and compact realization of quantum devices. Here, we show how a recently-demonstrated nonlinear nanophotonic process can be employed to selectively create photonic high-dimensional quantum states (qudits). We utilize the nonlinearity on the surface of the nanophotonic device to dress, through the polarization of the pump field, the near-field modes carrying angular momentum and their superpositions. This idea is an important step towards experimental realizations of quantum state generation and manipulation through nonlinearity within nanophotonic platforms, and enables new capabilities for on-chip quantum devices.
Quantum mechanics is now a mature topic dating back more than a century. During its scientific development, it fostered many technological advances that now are integrated into our everyday lives. More recently, over the past few decades, the authors have seen the emergence of a second quantum revolution, ushering in control of quantum states. Here, the spatial modes of light, “patterns of light,” hold tremendous potential: light is weakly interacting and so an attractive avenue for exploring entanglement preservation in open systems, while spatial modes of light offer a route to high dimensional Hilbert spaces for larger encoding alphabets, promising higher information capacity per photon, better security, and enhanced robustness to noise. Yet, progress in harnessing high dimensional spatial mode entanglement remains in its infancy. Here, the authors review the recent progress in this regard, outlining the core concepts in a tutorial manner before delving into the advances made in creation, manipulation, and detection of such quantum states. The authors cover advances in using orbital angular momentum as well as vectorial states that are hybrid entangled, combining spatial modes with polarization to form an infinite set of two-dimensional spaces: multidimensional entanglement. The authors highlight the exciting work in pushing the boundaries in both the dimension and the photon number, before finally summarizing the open challenges, and the questions that remain unanswered.