Construction of optical spatiotemporal skyrmions

Houan Teng; Xin Liu; Nianjia Zhang; Haihao Fan; Guoliang Chen; Qian Cao; Jinzhan Zhong; Xinrui Lei; Qiwen Zhan

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-02028-0

Your Location：

Home >

Browse articles >

Construction of optical spatiotemporal skyrmions

Original Articles

- Construction of optical spatiotemporal skyrmions
- Construction of optical spatiotemporal skyrmions
- Light: Science & Applications 2025年14卷第11期页码：3496-3505
- Affiliations：
  
  1.School of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
  2.Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technical Center of Light Manipulations and Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optics and Photonic Device, School of Physics and Electronics, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China
  3.Collaborative Innovation Center of Light Manipulations and Applications, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China
  4.Zhejiang Key Laboratory of 3D Micro/Nano Fabrication and Characterization, Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
  5.Westlake Institute for Optoelectronics, Fuyang, Hangzhou, China
  6.Zhangjiang Laboratory, Shanghai, China
  7.International Institute for Sustainability with Knotted Chiral Meta Matter (WPI-SKCM2), Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
- Author bio：
  
  Xinrui Lei (xrlei@usst.edu.cn)
  Qiwen Zhan (qwzhan@usst.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-02028-0
  中图分类号：
- 收稿：2025-04-11，
  
  修回：2025-08-14，
  
  录用：2025-08-31，
  
  网络出版：2025-09-16，
  
  纸质出版：2025-11-30
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Houan Teng, Xin Liu, Nianjia Zhang, 等. Construction of optical spatiotemporal skyrmions[J]. Light: Science & Applications, 2025,14(11):3496-3505.

Teng, H. et al. Construction of optical spatiotemporal skyrmions. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 3496-3505 (2025).
Houan Teng, Xin Liu, Nianjia Zhang, 等. Construction of optical spatiotemporal skyrmions[J]. Light: Science & Applications, 2025,14(11):3496-3505. DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-02028-0.

Teng, H. et al. Construction of optical spatiotemporal skyrmions. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 3496-3505 (2025). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-02028-0.

摘要

Abstract

The creation and manipulation of photonic skyrmions provide a novel degree of freedom for light-matter interactions

optical communication and nanometrology. Since the localized vortex within skyrmions arises from the twist and curl of the phase structure

the orbital angular momentum of light is essential for their construction. While numerous skyrmionic textures have been proposed

they are formed within the spatial domain and induced by the longitudinal orbital angular momentum. Here we theoretically propose and experimentally observe spatiotemporal skyrmions within a picosecond pulse wavepacket

generated through vectorial sculpturing of spatiotemporal wavepackets. The skyrmionic textures emerge within the spatiotemporal distribution of a vector field encompass all possible polarization states. Constructed upon the transverse orbital angular momentum

spatiotemporal skyrmions

in contrast to spatial skyrmions

exhibit no helical twisting perpendicular to the skyrmion plane

demonstrating potential stability against deformations or perturbations. These results expand the skyrmion family and offer new insights into optical quasiparticles

potentially leading to advanced applications in optical metrology

sensing

and data storage.

关键词

Keywords

references

Skyrme, T. H. R. A non-linear field theory. Proc. R. Soc. A: Math., Phys. Eng. Sci. 260 , 127–138 (1961)..

Skyrme, T. H. R. A unified field theory of mesons and baryons. Nucl. Phys. B 31 , 556–569 (1962)..

Manton, N. S. Skyrmions: A Theory of Nuclei. (New Jersey: World Scientific, 2022).

Al Khawaja, U. & Stoof, H. Skyrmions in a ferromagnetic Bose–Einstein condensate. Nature 411 , 918–920 (2001)..

Ruostekoski, J. & Anglin, J. R. Creating vortex rings and three-dimensional skyrmions in Bose-Einstein condensates. Phys. Rev. Lett. 86 , 3934–3937 (2001)..

Leslie, L. S. et al. Creation and detection of skyrmions in a Bose-Einstein condensate. Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 , 250401 (2009)..

Foster, D. et al. Two-dimensional skyrmion bags in liquid crystals and ferromagnets. Nat. Phys. 15 , 655–659 (2019)..

Duzgun, A. & Nisoli, C. Skyrmion spin ice in liquid crystals. Phys. Rev. Lett. 126 , 047801 (2021)..

Wu, J. S. & Smalyukh, I. I. Hopfions, heliknotons, skyrmions, torons and both abelian and nonabelian vortices in chiral liquid crystals. Liq. Cryst. Rev. 10 , 34–68 (2022)..

Mühlbauer, S. et al. Skyrmion lattice in a chiral magnet. Science 323 , 915–919 (2009)..

Yu, X. Z. et al. Real-space observation of a two-dimensional skyrmion crystal. Nature 465 , 901–904 (2010)..

Smirnova, D. A., Nori, F. & Bliokh, K. Y. Water-wave vortices and skyrmions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 132 , 054003 (2024)..

Wang, B. et al. Topological water-wave structures manipulating particles. Nature 638 , 394–400 (2025)..

Romming, N. et al. Writing and deleting single magnetic skyrmions. Science 341 , 636–639 (2013)..

Maccariello, D. et al. Electrical de tection of single magnetic skyrmions in metallic multilayers at room temperature. Nat. Nanotechnol. 13 , 233–237 (2018)..

Fert, A., Cros, V. & Sampaio, J. Skyrmions on the track. Nat. Nanotechnol. 8 , 152–156 (2013)..

Sampaio, J. et al. Nucleation, stability and current-induced motion of isolated magnetic skyrmions in nanostructures. Nat. Nanotechnol. 8 , 839–844 (2013)..

Nagaosa, N. & Tokura, Y. Topological properties and dynamics of magnetic skyrmions. Nat. Nanotechnol. 8 , 899–911 (2013)..

Göbel, B., Mertig, I. & Tretiakov, O. A. Beyond skyrmions: review and perspectives of alternative magnetic quasiparticles. Phys. Rep. 895 , 1–28 (2021)..

Shen, Y. J. et al. Optical skyrmions and other topological quasiparticles of light. Nat. Photonics 18 , 15–25 (2024)..

Tsesses, S. et al. Optical skyrmion lattice in evanescent electromagnetic fields. Science 361 , 993–996 (2018)..

Du, L. P. et al. Deep-subwavelength features of photonic skyrmions in a confined electromagnetic field with orbital angular momentum. Nat. Phys. 15 , 650–654 (2019)..

Gutiérrez-Cuevas, R. & Pisanty, E. Optical polarization skyrmionic fields in free space. J. Opt. 23 , 024004 (2021)..

Lei, X. R. et al. Skyrmionic spin textures in nonparaxial light. Adv. Photonics 7 , 016009 (2025)..

Lei, X. R. et al. Photonic spin lattices: symmetry constraints for skyrmion and meron topologies. Phys. Rev. Lett. 127 , 237403 (2021)..

Zhang, Q. et al. Periodic dynamics of optical skyrmion lattices driven by symmetry. Appl. Phys. Rev. 11 , 011409 (2024)..

Lin, M. et al. Wavelength-tuned transformation between photonic skyrmion and meron spin textures. Appl. Phys. Rev. 11 , 021408 (2024)..

Wu, Y. K. et al. Mapping the nanoscale optical topological textures with a fiber-integrated plasmonic probe. Nano Lett. 25 , 10369–10375 (2025)..

Gao, S. J. et al. Paraxial skyrmionic beams. Phys. Rev. A 102 , 053513 (2020)..

Shen, Y. J., Martínez, E. C. & Rosales-Guzmán, C. Generation of optical skyrmions with tunable topological textures. ACS Photonics 9 , 296–303 (2022)..

Cisowski, C., Ross, C. & Franke-Arnold, S. Building paraxial optical skyrmions using rational maps. Adv. Photonics Res. 4 , 2200350 (2023)..

McWilliam, A. et al. Topological approach of characterizing optical skyrmions and multi-skyrmions. Laser Photonics Rev. 17 , 2300155 (2023)..

Król, M. et al. Observation of second-order meron polarization textures in optical microcavities. Optica 8 , 255–261 (2021)..

Lin, W. B. et al. Microcavity-based generation of full Poincaré beams with arbitrary skyrmion numbers. Phys. Rev. Res. 3 , 023055 (2021)..

Shen, Y. J. Topological bimeronic beams. Opt. Lett. 46 , 3737–3740 (2021)..

Teng, H. A. et al. Physical conversion and superposition of optical skyrmion topologies. Photonics Res. 11 , 2042–2053 (2023)..

Singh, K. et al. Synthetic spin dynamics with Bessel-Gaussian optical skyrmions. Opt. Express 31 , 15289–15300 (2023)..

Wang, A. A. et al. Generalized skyrmions. Print at https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.17390 https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.17390 (2024).

Rao, A. S. Optical skyrmions in the Bessel profile. J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 41 , 1059–1069 (2024)..

Ornelas, P. et al. Non-local skyrmions as topologically resilient quantum entangled states of light. Nat. Photonics 18 , 258–266 (2024)..

He, C., Shen, Y. J. & Forbes, A. Towards higher-dimensional structured light. Light Sci. Appl. 11 , 205 (2022)..

He, C. et al. Complex vectorial optics through gradient index lens cascades. Nat. Commun. 10 , 4264 (2019)..

Beckley, A. M., Brown, T. G. & Alonso, M. A. Full Poincaré beams. Opt. Express 18 , 10777–10785 (2010)..

Shen, Y. J., Wang, H. W. & Fan, S. H. Free-space topological optical textures: tutorial. Adv. Opt. Photonics 17 , 295–374 (2025)..

Shen, Y. J. Topological light waves: skyrmions can fly. Opt. Photonics N. 36 , 26–33 (2025)..

Wang, A. A. et al. Topological protection of optical skyrmions through complex media. Light Sci. Appl. 13 , 314 (2024)..

Yang, A. P. et al. Spin-manipulated photonic skyrmion-pair for pico-metric displacement sensing. Adv. Sci. 10 , 2205249 (2023)..

Lei, X. R. et al. Optical spin–orbit coupling in the presence of magnetization: photonic skyrmion interaction with magnetic domains. Nanophotonics 10 , 3667–3675 (2021)..

He, T. T. et al. Optical skyrmions from metafibers with subwavelength features. Nat. Commun. 15 , 10141 (2024)..

Wang, A. A. et al. Unlocking new dimensions in photonic computing using optical Skyrmions. Print at https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.16311 https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.16311 (2024).

Chong, A. et al. Generation of spatiotemporal optical vortices with controllable transverse orbital angular momentum. Nat. Photonics 14 , 350–354 (2020)..

Cao, Q. et al. Spatiotemporal hologram. Nat. Commun. 15 , 7821 (2024)..

Liu, X. et al. Spatiotemporal optical vortices with controllable radial and azimuthal quantum numbers. Nat. Commun. 15 , 5435 (2024)..

Liu, X. et al. Ultrafast bursts of tailored spatiotemporal vortex pulses. Print at https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.19747 https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.19747 (2024).

Cao, Q. et al. Non-spreading Bessel spatiotemporal optical vortices. Sci. Bull. 67 , 133–140 (2022)..

Cao, Q., Zheng, P. K. & Zhan, Q. W. Vec torial sculpturing of spatiotemporal wavepackets. APL Photonics 7 , 096102 (2022)..

Zhan, Q. W. Spatiotemporal sculpturing of light: a tutorial. Adv. Opt. Photonics 16 , 163–228 (2024)..

Liu, X., Cao, Q. & Zhan, Q. W. Spatiotemporal optical wavepackets: from concepts to applications. Photonics Insights 3 , R08 (2024)..

Wan, C. H. et al. Toroidal vortices of light. Nat. Photonics 16 , 519–522 (2022)..

Zdagkas, A. et al. Observation of toroidal pulses of light. Nat. Photonics 16 , 523–528 (2022)..

Shen, Y. J. et al. Supertoroidal light pulses as electromagnetic skyrmions propagating in free space. Nat. Commun. 12 , 5891 (2021)..

Shen, Y. J., Papasimakis, N. & Zheludev, N. I. Nondiffracting supertoroidal pulses and optical "Kármán vortex streets. Nat. Commun. 15 , 4863 (2024)..

Wan, C. H. et al. Scalar optical hopfions. eLight 2 , 22 (2022)..

Simon, R. & Mukunda, N. Universal SU(2) gadget for polarization optics. Phys. Lett. A 138 , 474–480 (1989)..

Sit, A. et al. General lossless spatial polarization transformations. J. Opt. 19 , 094003 (2017)..

Kondakci, H. E. & Abouraddy, A. F. Diffraction-free space–time light sheets. Nat. Photonics 11 , 733–740 (2017)..

Davis, J. A. et al. Encoding amplitude information onto phase-only filters. Appl. Opt. 38 , 5004–5013 (1999)..

Li, H. et al. Three-dimensional laser pulse intensity diagnostic for photoinjectors. Phys. Rev. Spec. Top. - Accel. Beams 14 , 112802 (2011)..

Wang, J. W. et al. Generation of ring-shaped optical skyrmion with a high topological number. Appl. Phys. Lett. 126 , 201103 (2025)..

He, C. et al. A reconfigurable arbitrary retarder array as complex structured matter. Nat. Commun. 16 , 4902 (2025)..

Zheng, F. S. et al. Hopfion rings in a cubic chiral magnet. Nature 623 , 718–723 (2023)..

Rybakov, F. N. et al. Magnetic hopfions in solids. APL Mater. 10 , 111113 (2022)..

浏览量

Downloads

CSCD

文章被引用时，请邮件提醒。

Submit

工具集

关联资源

暂无数据