WEBINAR

Towards a nonlinear optical toolkit for classical and quantum communication with structured photons

Explore the cutting-edge world of structured light, from classical to quantum realms, and discover how nonlinear optics is unlocking new frontiers in high-dimensional quantum information processing, adaptive optics, and quantum teleportation.
June 12, 2025
3:00 PM UTC
1 hour

June 12, 2025 

11:00 AM ET / 10:00 AM CT / 8:00 AM PT / 4:00 PM GMT 

Duration: 1 hour 

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Summary

Structured light is an exploding topic, giving rise to new applications from classical to quantum.  The structuring can be done with bright light as well as single photons and entangled states for tailored photonic quantum landscapes, offering access to the infinite alphabet of patterns of light for high-dimension quantum information processing. This talk will review the emerging trend in using nonlinear optics as a means to control structured light, from classical to quantum.  

The tutorial-style talk will touch on topics such as adaptive optics at the speed of light with nonlinear optics, pattern recognition and nonlinear detectors, and quantum teleportation with a nonlinear detector. It will touch on what might be possible with resonant metasurfaces to address efficiency issues of traditional nonlinear systems, and outline the pressing problems and opportunities in the field. 

Speakers

Andrew Forbes

Distinguished Professor, School of Physics

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Andrew Forbes is presently a Distinguished Professor within the School of Physics at the U. Witwatersrand (South Africa) where in 2015 he established a new laboratory for Structured Light. Andrew is active in promoting photonics in Africa, a founding member of the Photonics Initiative of South Africa and Director of South Africa’s Quantum Initiative. He is a Fellow of SPIE, Optica, the South African Institute of Physics (SAIP), and an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. He holds 4 honorary professorships, is editor-in-chief of the IoP’s Journal of Optics and sits on the editorial board of five other international journals. Andrew has won several awards, including a national award for his contributions to photonics in South Africa, the Georg Forster prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for outstanding contributions to photonics, the SAIP Gold Medal, the highest award for physics in South Africa, making him the youngest winner to date, the Sang Soo Lee award from Optica and the Korean Optical Society and the TWAS prize for Physics. Andrew spends his time having fun with the taxpayers’ money, exploring structured light in lasers as well as classical and quantum optics.