Quantum searching algorithms using entangled structured light
Paola Concha Obando, Isaac M. Nape, Neelan Gounden, Andrew Forbes, Fazilah Nothlawala · 2025
Searching algorithms are pivotal in quantum information and computation fields, playing a crucial role in revealing specific elements in a database, and Grover’s algorithm is an example of this. Optical fields had been used as a resource to demonstrate Grover’s algorithm for solving unstructured search problems more efficiently those classical methods. Our work reports a novel way to perform searching algorithms using quantum structure light. We demonstrated the link between searching algorithms and quantum imaging techniques using complex light. By utilizing spatially entangled states of photons, we establish the equivalence between quantum ghost imaging process and Grover’s algorithm. Our results indicate that the use of entangled structured light offers a computational advantage compared to multi-quit search algorithms and is less resource intensive. Our optical adaptation of Grover’s algorithm requires only a single iteration, unlike the typical √N iterations, demonstrating an advantage due to higher-dimensional nature of photon space wave-functions.