A research team from Wits University is relishing in the spotlight after their work with light was selected for an internationally acclaimed ‘Top 30’ Advances list!
Global (06 December 2023) — Researchers from Wits University are relishing in a global achievement after having made the ‘Top 30’ Advances list in a renowned publication for their work revolving light.
No strangers to headlines, the ‘structured light team’ has done it again, this time for their spotlight in Optica’s (formerly the Optical Society of America) Optics & Photonics News magazine.
Their impressive work focused on a new approach to studying complex light in complex systems, including transporting classical and quantum light through underwater channels, living tissue and optical fibre, amongst others.
The team were able to show that light in special forms emerges undistorted in certain scenarios, while other forms of light become unrecognisable.
“We have always maintained the ‘patterns of light’ are the answer to communicating fast and securely; now we know how to select patterns that pass through highly distorting media as if the media was distortion-free,” says Professor Andrew Forbes of the Wits School of Physics.
Their spot in Optica’s Top 30 list has been dubbed a major international advance—so much so that it was also selected as the cover image for the magazine’s announcement in the December issue.
More than just an achievement in the scientific community, their work also opens the doors to future advances.
“Maintaining the integrity of structured light in complex media will pave the way to future work in imaging and communicating through noisy channels, particularly relevant when the structured forms of light are fragile quantum states,” Prof Forbes concludes.
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