Optical sensing with sculpted light

Jian Wang

1,2,3,*

Ziyi Tang

1,2,3

Zhenyu Wan

1,2,3

*Correspondence to: Jian Wang, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, China. E-mail: jwang@hust.edu.cn

Light Manip Appl. 2026;1:202606. 10.70401/lma.2026.0011

Received: March 07, 2026Accepted: May 18, 2026Published: May 19, 2026

This manuscript is made available in its unedited form to allow early access to the reported findings. Further editing will be completed before final publication. As such, the content may include errors, and standard legal disclaimers are applicable.

Abstract

Sculpted light, or optical fields with specifically engineered spatial, modal, and vectorial degrees of freedom, has developed as a powerful paradigm for optical sensing, allowing for improved and multidimensional light-matter interactions that extend beyond typical Gaussian illumination. By exploiting degrees of freedom such as orbital and spin angular momentum, spatial mode, polarization, and topology, sculpted light fields provide additional channels through which physical parameters can be mapped onto measurable optical transformations. Rather than merely enhancing sensitivity, sculpted light expands the dimensionality of optical sensing. Recent studies show how tailored optical fields provide additional sensing channels for encoding physical information, enabling precise measurement of parameters such as strain, temperature, position, velocity, refractive index, and structural asymmetry. This article provides a unified viewpoint on the generation and sensing applications of sculpted light, including both fiber-based techniques that take advantage of specialty fibers supporting higher-order modes and free-space techniques. As photonic integration, quantum-state engineering, and machine learning converge with advanced beam shaping technologies, sculpted light is poised to become a foundational strategy for next-generation optical sensing.

Keywords

Sculpted light, optical sensing, light-matter interaction, fiber sensing, doppler effect

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