Particle-like topologies in light

Area of Science:

• Topological Optics
• Particle Physics Analogues
• Structured Light

Background:

• Three-dimensional (3D) topological states, such as skyrmions and hopfions, exhibit particle-like properties and integer topological numbers.
• These exotic textures are significant in fields ranging from particle physics to superfluids.
• Understanding and manipulating these states is crucial for advancing fundamental physics and technological applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally create and measure a 3D skyrmionic hopfion in structured light.
• To demonstrate the synthesis of a Hopf fibration texture using tailored light polarization and phase.
• To explore the potential of topological states in light for 3D optical data encoding and metrology.

Main Methods:

• Simultaneously tailoring the polarization and phase profile of a light beam.
• Establishing a skyrmionic mapping by realizing all possible optical states within the propagation volume.
• Performing volumetric full-field reconstruction of the mapping to measure topological charge.

Main Results:

• Successful creation and measurement of a topological 3D skyrmionic hopfion in structured light.
• Observation of a Hopf fibration texture synthesized from the light field's Stokes parameters and phase.
• Measurement of a quantized topological charge (Skyrme number) of 0.945.

Conclusions:

• The experimental realization of a 3D skyrmionic hopfion in light offers a novel platform for studying topological phenomena.
• This work opens avenues for advanced 3D optical data encoding and high-precision metrology.
• The findings provide experimentally accessible photonic analogues to particle-like 3D topological textures across various physics domains.