Optical skyrmions in the Bessel profile.

Area of Science:

• Topological optics
• Quantum information science
• Particle physics

Background:

• Optical skyrmions are topological quasi-particles with unique polarization structures.
• They are of significant interest due to their stable topology and experimental accessibility.
• Existing skyrmions often originate from Laguerre-Gaussian modes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To theoretically investigate non-diffracting and self-healing optical skyrmions.
• To propose a method for generating these skyrmions using Bessel beams.
• To explore tunable properties and novel textures of optical skyrmions.

Main Methods:

• Superposition of two orthogonal Bessel modes.
• Application of the longitudinal mode matching technique.
• Theoretical investigation of Poincaré beams and Stokes vector fields.

Main Results:

• Generation of topologically protected, non-diffracting, and self-healing Poincaré beams as optical skyrmions.
• Demonstration that longitudinal mode matching is crucial for propagation-invariant skyrmions.
• Achieved tunable position and propagation range of skyrmions without on-axis intensity modulation.
• Proposed an experimental configuration for generating variable-order skyrmions, even in ultra-short laser pulses.

Conclusions:

• Longitudinal mode matching of Bessel beams is essential for creating non-diffracting optical skyrmions.
• The proposed technique enables tunable skyrmion generation with novel textures.
• This work opens new avenues for optical skyrmion research and applications.