24 October 2017
Understanding the world in quantum
Jacq’s research lies within the mysterious world of quantum physics and the intriguing theory of entanglement – that information is shared between particles regardless of how far apart they are (even existing at opposite sides of the universe!).
The quantum world is relatively unknown, but holds a lot of potential for the future, in terms of increased capacity to transmit data, increased security, but more importantly unlocking a new science not yet fully understood. Jacq creates large quantum alphabets using a less well known property of light, known as the orbital angular momentum (or OAM). By creating an alphabet where the different OAMs, which are the different helical twist formations of a beam of light, serve as the different letters, Jacq is able to create a unique quantum encoding system of a much larger capacity (theoretically infinite!). By creating quantum alphabets, Jacq is able to unlock some of the mysteries of the very puzzling properties of higher dimension quantum information.
Jacq will provide the first experimental evidence to an existing theory to verify the fundamental differences in the way information works for larger quantum alphabets, compared to the classical encoding system we use today. Jacq’s findings will provide critical knowledge as we start to access more of the benefits of the quantum world.