Quantum and Optical Communications and Sensing: Fundamentals, Applications, Challenges and Future Aspects

Dear Colleagues,

Quantum and optical technologies are rapidly transforming the fields of communication, sensing, networking, and information processing. Recent advances in photonic technologies, quantum communication, free-space optical (FSO) systems, optical wireless communication, quantum key distribution (QKD), optical and fiber-optic sensing, and integrated photonic platforms are opening new opportunities for high-capacity, secure, precise, and energy-efficient systems.

The convergence of quantum technologies with advanced optical communication and sensing is creating new research opportunities while also introducing significant challenges related to channel impairments, photon-level detection, atmospheric turbulence, noise, system security, scalability, miniaturization, and real-world deployment. Addressing these challenges requires interdisciplinary research combining photonics, optical communications, quantum information, signal processing, sensing, artificial intelligence, and advanced materials and devices.

We are pleased to invite researchers from academia, research institutes, and industry to contribute to this Special Issue, which will provide a platform for presenting recent advances, emerging technologies, fundamental developments, and future perspectives in quantum and optical communications and sensing.

This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive overview of recent developments in quantum and optical communications and sensing, with particular emphasis on fundamental principles, emerging applications, experimental demonstrations, system-level challenges, and future research directions.

The Special Issue welcomes contributions addressing both theoretical and experimental aspects of quantum and optical technologies. Particular attention will be given to research that bridges fundamental photonic and quantum phenomena with practical communication, sensing, networking, and information-processing applications.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Quantum communication and quantum networking;
• Quantum key distribution (QKD), including DV-QKD, CV-QKD, and entanglement-based QKD;
• Free-space optical (FSO) and optical wireless communications;
• Fiber-optic and integrated optical communications;
• Satellite-based optical and quantum communications;
• Photon-level detection, quantum receivers, and optical signal processing;
• Atmospheric turbulence, scintillation, pointing errors, and channel modeling for FSO systems;
• Adaptive optics and intelligent optical communication systems;
• Orbital angular momentum (OAM) and spatial-mode multiplexing;
• Machine learning and artificial intelligence for optical and quantum communications;
• Optical, fiber-optic, photonic, and quantum sensing;
• Plasmonic, metasurface, and nanophotonic sensors;
• Distributed and fiber-optic sensing;
• Quantum-enhanced sensing and metrology;
• Photonic devices, sources, detectors, and integrated photonic platforms;
• Security, resilience, and performance optimization of quantum and optical networks;
• Experimental testbeds, field trials, and real-world deployment of quantum and optical technologies;
• Emerging applications in space, biomedical, industrial, environmental, and next-generation communication systems.

Dr. Satyendra Kumar Mishra
Dr. Meet Kumari
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• quantum communications
• optical communications
• quantum key distribution
• free-space optical communications
• optical sensing
• quantum sensing
• photonic sensors
• integrated photonics
• optical wireless communications
• quantum networks