Takashige Omatsu (Chiba University), Praveen Kumar (Indian Institute of Technology, Birai), and Natalia M. Litchinitser (Duke University) have proposed and demonstrated a straightforward mapping of the polarization textures of optical Néel-, Bloch-, and anti-skyrmions based on the radiation pressure and direct imprinting of the skyrmion textures on azopolymers. These results not only elucidate the exotic interaction that occurs between topologically protected quasiparticles of light and matter but also provide a simple approach for generation and characterization of optical skyrmions, based on a dual-path polarization shaping configuration with a single spatial light modulator, and their measurements based on the radiation pressure.
These results were published in the academic journal “APL Photonics” on April 1, 2024.

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0192239