Topological transformation and free-space transport of photonic hopfions

Yijie Shen; Bingshi Yu; Haijun Wu; Chunyu Li; Zhihan Zhu; Anatoly Zayats

doi:10.1117/1.AP.5.1.015001

Topological transformation and free-space transport of photonic hopfions

Yijie Shen, Bingshi Yu, Haijun Wu, Chunyu Li, Zhihan Zhu, Anatoly Zayats

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18 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Structured light fields embody strong spatial variations of polarization, phase, and amplitude. Understanding, characterization, and exploitation of such fields can be achieved through their topological properties. Three-dimensional (3D) topological solitons, such as hopfions, are 3D localized continuous field configurations with nontrivial particle-like structures that exhibit a host of important topologically protected properties. Here, we propose and demonstrate photonic counterparts of hopfions with exact characteristics of Hopf fibration, Hopf index, and Hopf mapping from real-space vector beams to homotopic hyperspheres representing polarization states. We experimentally generate photonic hopfions with on-demand high-order Hopf indices and independently controlled topological textures, including Néel-, Bloch-, and antiskyrmionic types. We also demonstrate a robust free-space transport of photonic hopfions, thus showing the potential of hopfions for developing optical topological informatics and communications.

Original language	English
Article number	015001
Journal	Advanced Photonics
Volume	5
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1117/1.AP.5.1.015001
Publication status	Published - 10 Jan 2023

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10.1117/1.AP.5.1.015001Licence: CC BY

Topological transformation and free-space transport of photonic hopfionsFinal published version, 3.13 MBLicence: CC BY

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title = "Topological transformation and free-space transport of photonic hopfions",

abstract = "Structured light fields embody strong spatial variations of polarization, phase, and amplitude. Understanding, characterization, and exploitation of such fields can be achieved through their topological properties. Three-dimensional (3D) topological solitons, such as hopfions, are 3D localized continuous field configurations with nontrivial particle-like structures that exhibit a host of important topologically protected properties. Here, we propose and demonstrate photonic counterparts of hopfions with exact characteristics of Hopf fibration, Hopf index, and Hopf mapping from real-space vector beams to homotopic hyperspheres representing polarization states. We experimentally generate photonic hopfions with on-demand high-order Hopf indices and independently controlled topological textures, including N{\'e}el-, Bloch-, and antiskyrmionic types. We also demonstrate a robust free-space transport of photonic hopfions, thus showing the potential of hopfions for developing optical topological informatics and communications.",

author = "Yijie Shen and Bingshi Yu and Haijun Wu and Chunyu Li and Zhihan Zhu and Anatoly Zayats",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported, in part, by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 62075050, 11934013, and 61975047), the High-Level Talents Project of Heilongjiang Province (Grant No. 2020GSP12), and the European Research Council iCOMM project (Grant No. 789340). The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Authors. Published by SPIE and CLP under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.",

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AU - Zhu, Zhihan

AU - Zayats, Anatoly

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported, in part, by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 62075050, 11934013, and 61975047), the High-Level Talents Project of Heilongjiang Province (Grant No. 2020GSP12), and the European Research Council iCOMM project (Grant No. 789340). The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Publisher Copyright: © The Authors. Published by SPIE and CLP under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

PY - 2023/1/10

Y1 - 2023/1/10

N2 - Structured light fields embody strong spatial variations of polarization, phase, and amplitude. Understanding, characterization, and exploitation of such fields can be achieved through their topological properties. Three-dimensional (3D) topological solitons, such as hopfions, are 3D localized continuous field configurations with nontrivial particle-like structures that exhibit a host of important topologically protected properties. Here, we propose and demonstrate photonic counterparts of hopfions with exact characteristics of Hopf fibration, Hopf index, and Hopf mapping from real-space vector beams to homotopic hyperspheres representing polarization states. We experimentally generate photonic hopfions with on-demand high-order Hopf indices and independently controlled topological textures, including Néel-, Bloch-, and antiskyrmionic types. We also demonstrate a robust free-space transport of photonic hopfions, thus showing the potential of hopfions for developing optical topological informatics and communications.

AB - Structured light fields embody strong spatial variations of polarization, phase, and amplitude. Understanding, characterization, and exploitation of such fields can be achieved through their topological properties. Three-dimensional (3D) topological solitons, such as hopfions, are 3D localized continuous field configurations with nontrivial particle-like structures that exhibit a host of important topologically protected properties. Here, we propose and demonstrate photonic counterparts of hopfions with exact characteristics of Hopf fibration, Hopf index, and Hopf mapping from real-space vector beams to homotopic hyperspheres representing polarization states. We experimentally generate photonic hopfions with on-demand high-order Hopf indices and independently controlled topological textures, including Néel-, Bloch-, and antiskyrmionic types. We also demonstrate a robust free-space transport of photonic hopfions, thus showing the potential of hopfions for developing optical topological informatics and communications.

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Topological transformation and free-space transport of photonic hopfions

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