A picture is worth a thousand words; and in a very real sense, images encoded in the profile of a laser provide a highly efficient method to encrypt and convey information. Vector light beams have spatially-dependent profiles sculpted in their intensity, phase and polarisation simultaneously. These present a particular set of complex images, with advanced generation and detection technology already in place – even for single photons. In this PhD project you will demonstrate storage and processing of vector light information in a rubidium vapour. You will support shifts between differently coloured images and build a dynamically controlled structured light optical conversion platform –required for a truly high-dimensional quantum network. The PhD will be carried out in the Experimental Quantum Optics and Photonics Group in the Physics Department at the University of Strathclyde.

This project has already generated relatively high-profile publications around a single previous Leverhulme grant (see below), and mainly requires a new student to work on the experiment again as the lasers, SLM, optics and cells already exist.