Advances in structured light and machine intelligence reshape photonics

by Riko Seibo
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Nov 19, 2025

Scientists are now using light in new, more complex ways, enabled by artificial intelligence (AI). Structured light - light that is carefully shaped and controlled to have complex features - can be made to twist, stretch, or take on specific patterns. This breakthrough allows light to do much more than simply illuminate an object.

Researchers describe how mixing the orientation (polarization) of light with particular spatial patterns lets them focus it more sharply for better microscope images or to cut and process materials more precisely. They also found that by creating 'topological' light with unique shapes, the light becomes naturally resistant to disturbances, a valuable trait for sending information through noisy environments.

In the advancing field of optical communications, structured light provides a richer set of encoding options for data transmission. Instead of limitations posed by basic laser signals, scientists can use different light patterns and twists to send more complex information, promising faster and more efficient communications.

However, producing and understanding these elaborate forms of light is difficult. Here, AI excels: computer algorithms can design, refine, and recognize structured light patterns more efficiently than humans can alone. AI methods help reduce noise in communications, improve microscope clarity by considering both the light and the sample it illuminates, and design new experiments for quantum light, paving the way for advanced types of computing.

One especially fascinating advance is using complex light itself like a computer. By sending structured light through materials that scramble its patterns, scientists can create a process similar to how artificial neural networks work. This approach allows light-based devices to perform certain types of rapid calculations automatically, using the physics of light propagation. It merges two scientific fields: using computers to help create smarter light, and using smarter light to build computers that operate at the speed of light.

Professors Zilong Zhang, Andrew Forbes, Yijie Shen, and their colleagues have mapped out this growing relationship between structured light and AI. Their research points toward a future in which light serves as a tool not just for seeing or sending messages, but for sensing, computing, and rapid decision-making across a range of scientific and technological domains.

Research Report:Structured light meets machine intelligence