Can Non‐Orthogonal Bases Form Stable Skyrmionic Beams?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Skyrmions, topologically stable spin textures, have recently garnered significant attention in optics, promising robust high‐density information transmission and nontrivial light‐matter interaction. Optical skyrmionic beams have generally been considered to require the superposition of two orthogonal spatial modes with orthogonal polarization states to achieve topologically stable propagation. Here, we show that propagation‐stable skyrmionic beams can also be formed when the constituent spatial modes and polarization states are non‐orthogonal. We theoretically present the mechanism to control the stable skyrmionic beams through the hybrid superposition of modes from the Hermite‐Gaussian and Laguerre‐Gaussian families and experimentally control the longitudinal on‐demand dynamics of the skyrmions. This work redefines the topological stability of optical skyrmions, breaks limits, and reduces the requirement for manipulating topologically structured light for practical multidimensional implementation of topologically robust information technologies.