Deterministic and dynamic synthesis of optical skyrmions through an ultrathin multimode fibre
Abstract
Topological light fields offer powerful opportunities for information encoding, transport, and manipulation, yet their deterministic generation in complex scattering media remains an outstanding challenge. In highly multimode fibres, strong mode coupling and polarisation mixing can obscure the precise control required to synthesise structured vectorial states, including optical skyrmions. Here, we demonstrate the deterministic generation and dynamic reconfiguration of arbitrary optical skyrmions through an ultrathin multimode fibre. By combining vectorial transmission-matrix control with a phase-retrieval optimisation framework, we exploit the full polarisation-resolved modal space of the fibre to reconstruct user-defined vector fields with high fidelity at the distal facet. This approach enables the synthesis of Néel, Bloch, anti- and higher-order skyrmions, and bimerons. Their topological properties are confirmed through polarisation-resolved Stokes-vector measurements and quantitative determination of the skyrmion number. Wavefront reprogramming further provides dynamic control over polarisation textures, enabling reversible transitions between distinct skyrmionic states. Our results establish multimode fibres as programmable platforms for the generation of topological light and introduce a scalable route towards minimally invasive topological photonics, with potential applications in imaging, sensing, optical communications, and information processing in complex environments.
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BibTeX
@misc{gonzalez2026deterministic,
title = {{Deterministic and dynamic synthesis of optical skyrmions through an ultrathin multimode fibre}},
author = {R. E. Bautista Gonzalez and R. Mouthaan and A. McIntosh and K. Dholakia},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.02549},
eprint = {2611.02549},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.02549},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Deterministic and dynamic synthesis of optical skyrmions through an ultrathin multimode fibre
AU - R. E. Bautista Gonzalez
AU - R. Mouthaan
AU - A. McIntosh
AU - K. Dholakia
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/02
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.02549
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.02549
AB - Topological light fields offer powerful opportunities for information encoding, transport, and manipulation, yet their deterministic generation in complex scattering media remains an outstanding challenge. In highly multimode fibres, strong mode coupling and polarisation mixing can obscure the precise control required to synthesise structured vectorial states, including optical skyrmions. Here, we demonstrate the deterministic generation and dynamic reconfiguration of arbitrary optical skyrmions through an ultrathin multimode fibre. By combining vectorial transmission-matrix control with a phase-retrieval optimisation framework, we exploit the full polarisation-resolved modal space of the fibre to reconstruct user-defined vector fields with high fidelity at the distal facet. This approach enables the synthesis of Néel, Bloch, anti- and higher-order skyrmions, and bimerons. Their topological properties are confirmed through polarisation-resolved Stokes-vector measurements and quantitative determination of the skyrmion number. Wavefront reprogramming further provides dynamic control over polarisation textures, enabling reversible transitions between distinct skyrmionic states. Our results establish multimode fibres as programmable platforms for the generation of topological light and introduce a scalable route towards minimally invasive topological photonics, with potential applications in imaging, sensing, optical communications, and information processing in complex environments.
ER -