Q-plate technology: a progress review

Since their first introduction in 2006, q-plates have found a constantly increasing number of uses in diverse contexts, ranging from fundamental research on complex structured light fields to more applicative innovations of established experimental techniques, passing through a variety of other emerging topics, such as, for instance, quantum information protocols based on the angular momentum of light. In this paper, we present a bird’s-eye view of the progress of this technology in recent years and offer some educated guesses on the most likely future developments.