6–10 Jul 2026
University of the Western Cape
Africa/Johannesburg timezone
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Single-step shaping of space, time and polarization and the robustness of space-time vector beams in complex media

7 Jul 2026, 11:20
20m
Lecture Hall DL1 (University of the Western Cape)

Lecture Hall DL1

University of the Western Cape

Oral Presentation Track C - Photonics Photonics

Speaker

Kelsey Everts (University of the Witwatersrand)

Description

Structuring light’s space, time and polarization within a single pulse has only recently become feasible, enabling the generation of complex spatiotemporal vector beams (STVBs) ideal for high-density information transport. Unfortunately, all current STVB generation methods rely on bulky, complex 4f pulse shapers prohibiting on-chip applications. Here we theoretically propose and experimentally realise a compact single-step metasurface generating nanosecond STVB pulses in the microwave regime with fidelities above 93% by leveraging a novel birefringent grating design. Additionally, we present a basis independent measurement toolkit for quantifying space-time non-separability. We demonstrate that the space-time non-separability is robust in free-space and phase distorting channels, emerging unchanged even when the individual degrees of freedom become highly distorted. This work thus provides a novel compact STVB generation method easily extendable to the visible light regime by simply scaling the metasurface. It also reveals the underlying robustness of these STVBs in real-world channels, crucial for error-free high density communication applications.

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Author

Kelsey Everts (University of the Witwatersrand)

Co-authors

ANDREW FORBES (U. Witwatersrand) Mr Renwei Zou (College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University) Prof. Yungui Ma (Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China)

Presentation materials