Optical skyrmions from metafibers with subwavelength features

Area of Science:

• Photonics and optical physics.
• Emerging structured light phenomena.
• Topological photonics.

Background:

• Optical skyrmions are structured light with particle-like topologies, promising for informatics.
• Current methods for generating optical skyrmions are complex and bulky, limiting applications.
• Lab-on-fiber technology offers miniaturization potential for photonic devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and demonstrate a compact, fiber-integrated photonic skyrmion generator.
• To generate high-quality optical skyrmions using metafiber technology.
• To investigate the properties of these fiber-integrated optical skyrmions, including topology switchability and stability.

Main Methods:

• Integration of metafiber technology with a lab-on-fiber platform.
• Generation of optical skyrmions directly from the metafiber.
• Characterization of skyrmion properties, focusing on topology and polarization features.

Main Results:

• Successful generation of high-quality optical skyrmions from a metafiber.
• Demonstration of topology switchability and stability in the generated skyrmions.
• Observation of subwavelength polarization features exceeding diffraction limits.

Conclusions:

• A flexible and compact platform for generating optical skyrmions has been developed using metafiber integration.
• The generated optical skyrmions exhibit controllable topological properties and subwavelength features.
• This technology opens new avenues for super-resolution microscopy and robust information transfer.