Optical skyrmions

Stephen M. Barnett; Claire M. Cisowski; Amy McWilliam; Fiona C. Speirits; Zhujun Ye; Jörg B. Götte; Sonja Franke-Arnold

doi:10.1117/12.2676688

4 October 2023 Optical skyrmions

Stephen M. Barnett, Claire M. Cisowski, Amy McWilliam, Fiona C. Speirits, Zhujun Ye, Jörg B. Götte, Sonja Franke-Arnold

Proceedings Volume 12647, Active Photonic Platforms (APP) 2023; 126470A (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2676688
Event: SPIE Nanoscience + Engineering, 2023, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

We show that Skyrmions provide a natural language and tool with which to describe and model structured light fields. These fields are characterised by an engineered spatial variation of the optical field amplitude, phase and polarisation. In this short presentation there is scope only for dealing with the simplest (and perhaps most significant) of these namely those that can be designed and propagate within the regime of paraxial optics. Paraxial Skyrmions are most readily defined in terms of the normalised Stokes parameters and as such are properties of the local polarisation at any given point in the structured light beam. They are also topological entities and as such are robust against perturbations. We outline briefly how Skyrmionic beams have been generated to order in the laboratory. Optics gives us access, also, to the Skyrmion field and we present the key properties of this field and show how it provides the natural way to describe the polarisation of structured light beams.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Stephen M. Barnett, Claire M. Cisowski, Amy McWilliam, Fiona C. Speirits, Zhujun Ye, Jörg B. Götte, and Sonja Franke-Arnold "Optical skyrmions", Proc. SPIE 12647, Active Photonic Platforms (APP) 2023, 126470A (4 October 2023); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2676688

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