Closed forms for spatiotemporal optical vortices and sagittal skyrmionic pulses

TL;DR

This paper derives exact analytic expressions for spatiotemporal optical vortices and introduces a new type of pulse with sagittal skyrmionic polarization, advancing understanding of complex light structures.

Contribution

It provides the first exact Maxwell-satisfying solutions for STOVs and proposes a novel pulse with skyrmionic polarization distribution.

Findings

Exact analytic expressions for STOVs derived

A simple ray picture explains pulse deformation

Proposal of a new sagittal skyrmionic pulse

Abstract

Spatiotemporal optical vortices (STOVs) are short pulses that present a vortex whose axis is perpendicular to the main propagation direction. We present analytic expressions for these pulses that satisfy exactly Maxwell's equation, by applying appropriate differential operators to complex focus pulses with Poisson-like frequency spectrum. We also provide a simple ray picture for understanding the deformation of these pulses under propagation. Finally, we use these solutions to propose a type of pulse with sagittal skyrmionic polarization distribution covering all states of transverse polarization.