  Quantum information science and quantum information technology have seen a
virtual explosion world-wide. It is all based on the observation that
fundamental quantum phenomena on the individual particle or system-level lead
to completely novel ways of encoding, processing and transmitting information.
Quantum mechanics, a child of the first third of the 20th century, has found
numerous realizations and technical applications, much more than was thought at
the beginning. Decades later, it became possible to do experiments with
individual quantum particles and quantum systems. This was due to technological
progress, and for light in particular, the development of the laser. Hitherto,
nearly all experiments and also nearly all realizations in the fields have been
performed with qubits, which are two-level quantum systems. We suggest that
this limitation is again mainly a technological one, because it is very
difficult to create, manipulate and measure more complex quantum systems. Here,
we provide a specific overview of some recent developments with
higher-dimensional quantum systems. We mainly focus on Orbital Angular Momentum
(OAM) states of photons and possible applications in quantum information
protocols. Such states form discrete higher-dimensional quantum systems, also
called qudits. Specifically, we will first address the question what kind of
new fundamental properties exist and the quantum information applications which
are opened up by such novel systems. Then we give an overview of recent
developments in the field by discussing several notable experiments over the
past 2-3 years. Finally, we conclude with several important open questions
which will be interesting for investigations in the future.
