Optical skyrmions from metafibers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel metafiber-based device that efficiently generates and verifies high-quality optical skyrmions with topological stability, enabling practical applications in super-resolution microscopy and robust information transfer.

Contribution

It presents the first successful design and experimental verification of a metafiber-integrated optical skyrmion generator with deep-subwavelength features.

Findings

High-quality optical skyrmions generated from metafibers

Demonstrated regulability and topological stability of skyrmions

Achieved features beyond diffraction limits

Abstract

Optical skyrmions are an emerging class of structured light with sophisticated particle-like topologies with great potential for revolutionizing modern informatics. However, the current generation of optical skyrmions involves complex or bulky systems, hindering their development of practical applications. Here, exploiting the emergent "lab-on-fiber" technology, we demonstrate the design of a metafiber-integrated photonic skyrmion generator. We not only successfully generated high-quality optical skyrmions from metafibers, but also experimentally verified their remarkable properties, such as regulability and topological stability with deep-subwavelength features beyond the diffraction limits. Our flexible and fiber-integrated optical skyrmions platform paves the avenue for future applications of topologically-enhanced remote super-resolution microscopy and super-robust information transfer.