IDEA #1E8CD7 Hyperdimensional Spin-Orbit Microlaser. Penn Ref: 23-10269 23A0010

U Penn: Liang Feng, Haoqi, Zhao & Zhifeng Zhang. CSI: Li Ge. 63/425901 filed 20221116. The problem that the invention solved is to coherently generate high dimensional structured light, including spin-orbit states in an integrated and scalable way. Previous techniques use table-top optical component, including bulk lasers, waveplates, spatial light modulators and spiral phase plates to generate such kind of states, which is cumbersome, required manual tuning of expertise and not scalable. Our previous work on microlaser can only emit discrete states instead of the superposition among these sates, which, although integrated, cannot fully use the dimensionality of the space. Our current invention solves these problems. The device uses integrated photonic circuits on III/V semiconductor platform to emit spin-orbit states and uses external laser to control the on-chip coupling, thereby coherently generate all of the spin-orbit superposition states in the 4-dimsnional Hilbert space. Our invention can be used in high dimensional classical long-range communication. With the spin-orbit microlaser, space-division multiplexing can be used to transmit information, increasing the channel capacity and the security of the communication channel. Moreover, as we discussed at the end of the paper, when attenuated to single-photon level and using decoy state protocol, the microlaser can also be used in high-dimensional quantum communication, including satellite to earth communication, tower to tower communication and intracity communication. This has been theoretically studied and experimentally investigated. The possible end user for these applications can be wireless communication services provider or communication devices provider. In addition, since the innovation demonstrate our ability to control the state of light emission from a microlaser, it has some potential to be used in LIDAR, display, sensing and eye tracking in AR/VR.