Skyrmions based on optical anisotropy for topological encoding
- 1Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- 2Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. [email protected]
Abstract
-valued fields, reflecting the ubiquity of topology in the study of the natural world. In this paper, we develop an abstract technique of parameter space dimensionality reduction that extends the skyrmion framework to fields taking values in manifolds of dimension greater than 2, thereby broadening the range of systems that can support skyrmions. To prove that this is more than just a mathematical abstraction, we apply our technique to light-matter interactions, directly encoding skyrmionic structures into the optical anisotropy of spatially varying structured matter by selecting a distinguished axis, an approach fundamentally different from the more commonly known skyrmions formed by director fields in liquid crystals. We experimentally realize such skyrmions using a liquid-crystal-based tunable elliptical retarder array as a proof-of-concept platform and demonstrate complex, reconfigurable skyrmionic states exhibiting topological robustness under artificially introduced stochastic perturbations. Exploiting this robustness, we demonstrate a promising application of skyrmions in topologically protected information storage and provide an easily verifiable rule, which we term the 60° rule, that serves as a practical engineering criterion for guaranteeing robustness against noise and measurement errors.
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BibTeX
@article{zhang2026skyrmions,
title = {{Skyrmions based on optical anisotropy for topological encoding}},
author = {Yunqi Zhang and An Aloysius Wang and Runchen Zhang and Zimo Zhao and Yifei Ma and Ruofu Liu and Zhi-Kai Pong and Yuxi Cai and Chao He},
journal = {Light Science \& Applications},
year = {2026},
month = may,
doi = {10.1038/s41377-026-02307-4},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02307-4},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Skyrmions based on optical anisotropy for topological encoding
AU - Yunqi Zhang
AU - An Aloysius Wang
AU - Runchen Zhang
AU - Zimo Zhao
AU - Yifei Ma
AU - Ruofu Liu
AU - Zhi-Kai Pong
AU - Yuxi Cai
AU - Chao He
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/05/27
JO - Light Science & Applications
DO - 10.1038/s41377-026-02307-4
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02307-4
AB - -valued fields, reflecting the ubiquity of topology in the study of the natural world. In this paper, we develop an abstract technique of parameter space dimensionality reduction that extends the skyrmion framework to fields taking values in manifolds of dimension greater than 2, thereby broadening the range of systems that can support skyrmions. To prove that this is more than just a mathematical abstraction, we apply our technique to light-matter interactions, directly encoding skyrmionic structures into the optical anisotropy of spatially varying structured matter by selecting a distinguished axis, an approach fundamentally different from the more commonly known skyrmions formed by director fields in liquid crystals. We experimentally realize such skyrmions using a liquid-crystal-based tunable elliptical retarder array as a proof-of-concept platform and demonstrate complex, reconfigurable skyrmionic states exhibiting topological robustness under artificially introduced stochastic perturbations. Exploiting this robustness, we demonstrate a promising application of skyrmions in topologically protected information storage and provide an easily verifiable rule, which we term the 60° rule, that serves as a practical engineering criterion for guaranteeing robustness against noise and measurement errors.
SN - 2047-7538
SN - 2095-5545
ER -