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Reconfigurable circuit for mode tunable topological quantum structured light

Quantum Physics 2026-03-23 v2 Optics

Abstract

Structured light in the quantum regime has garnered considerable attention due to the opportunities it offers when mixing light's internal degrees of freedom, for high-dimensional and multi-dimensional quantum states of light. A popular example is to harness polarisation and spatial entangled photons with a shared topological invariant that is robust against numerous families of noisy quantum channels. Yet, producing such states with high purity and adaptability remains challenging. Here we introduce a compact, self-locking Mach-Zehnder interferometer that integrates digital spatial light modulators with static beam displacers to map spatial-mode entanglement from a parametric down-conversion source onto topological entanglement with high fidelity. The device also mimics the action of a reprogrammable controlled-unitary gate, digitally driven by the spatial light modulator. This approach is an enabling platform and provides a practical route to generating reliable, high-purity quantum-structured light with topological features, both at the single-photon level and as entangled states, a direction of growing topical interest.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.17716,
  title  = {Reconfigurable circuit for mode tunable topological quantum structured light},
  author = {Pedro Ornelas and Tatjana Kleine and André G. de Oliveira and Carmelo Rosales-Guzmán and Andrew Forbes and Isaac Nape},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.17716},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

8 pages, 3 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:26:10.179Z