Teng Houan, Liu Xin, Zhang Nianjia, Fan Haihao, Chen Guoliang, Cao Qian, Zhong Jinzhan, Lei Xinrui, Zhan Qiwen
School of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.
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.
Light Sci Appl. 2025 Sep 16;14(1):324. doi: 10.1038/s41377-025-02028-0.
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.
光子斯格明子的产生和操控为光与物质相互作用、光通信和纳米计量学提供了一种全新的自由度。由于斯格明子内部的局域涡旋源于相位结构的扭曲和卷曲，光的轨道角动量对于其构造至关重要。虽然已经提出了众多斯格明子纹理，但它们是在空间域内形成并由纵向轨道角动量诱导产生的。在此，我们从理论上提出并通过实验观测到皮秒脉冲波包内的时空斯格明子，其通过时空波包的矢量整形产生。斯格明子纹理出现在包含所有可能偏振态的矢量场的时空分布中。与空间斯格明子不同，基于横向轨道角动量构建的时空斯格明子在垂直于斯格明子平面的方向上不表现出螺旋扭曲，显示出对变形或扰动的潜在稳定性。这些结果扩展了斯格明子家族，并为光学准粒子提供了新的见解，有望在光学计量、传感和数据存储等领域带来先进应用。
