Freespace twistronics for optical supertopologies

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel concept of twistronics in free space using twisted light fields to generate high-dimensional topological structures with potential applications in robust information transfer and encryption.

Contribution

It extends twistronics from 2D materials to free-space light fields, creating stable, high-dimensional optical topologies with unique properties.

Findings

Generated diverse high-dimensional topologies including skyrmions and quasicrystals.

Demonstrated long-distance, nondiffractive propagation of moiré textures.

Achieved controllable symmetry and robustness against perturbations.

Abstract

Twistronics, the study of moir\'e superlattices of twisted bilayer 2D materials creating nontrivial physical effects, has recently revolutionized diverse subjects from materials to optoelectronics, nanophotonics, and beyond. Here, breaking the reliance on materials, we present twistronics in higher-dimensional free space, where the twisted lattice is not a layer of 2D material but a 3D propagating light field with topological textures. Moir\'e structured light with a twist angle can generate a rich set of high-dimensional topologies, including skyrmionium bags, skyrmion bag superlattices, skyrmion clusters, and optical quasicrystals, with controllable symmetry. Many of these textures have not been reported before. Importantly, in contrast to prior moir\'e superlattices, our freespace optical moir\'e textures maintain their topologies over a long propagation distances, showing nondiffractive behavior and robustness against perturbations and obstacles. Our work unlocks higher dimensions to manipulate moir\'e photonics with high-capacity topologies to address modern challenges of robust information transfer and encryption.