Supertoroidal light pulses as electromagnetic skyrmions propagating in free space
Supertoroidal light pulses as electromagnetic skyrmions propagating in free space
Topological complex transient electromagnetic fields give access to nontrivial light-matter interactions and provide additional degrees of freedom for information transfer. An important example of such electromagnetic excitations are space-time non-separable single-cycle pulses of toroidal topology, the exact solutions of Maxwell’s equations described by Hellwarth and Nouchi in 1996 and recently observed experimentally. Here we introduce an extended family of electromagnetic excitation, the supertoroidal electromagnetic pulses, in which the Hellwarth-Nouchi pulse is just the simplest member. The supertoroidal pulses exhibit skyrmionic structure of the electromagnetic fields, multiple singularities in the Poynting vector maps and fractal-like distributions of energy backflow. They are of interest for transient light-matter interactions, ultrafast optics, spectroscopy, and toroidal electrodynamics.
Shen, Yijie
42410cf7-8adb-4de6-9175-a1332245c368
Hou, Yaonan
21cd6d93-63f2-4c1d-8297-6cce6bc7a772
Papasimakis, Nikitas
f416bfa9-544c-4a3e-8a2d-bc1c11133a51
Zheludev, Nikolai
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
8 October 2021
Shen, Yijie
42410cf7-8adb-4de6-9175-a1332245c368
Hou, Yaonan
21cd6d93-63f2-4c1d-8297-6cce6bc7a772
Papasimakis, Nikitas
f416bfa9-544c-4a3e-8a2d-bc1c11133a51
Zheludev, Nikolai
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
Shen, Yijie, Hou, Yaonan, Papasimakis, Nikitas and Zheludev, Nikolai
(2021)
Supertoroidal light pulses as electromagnetic skyrmions propagating in free space.
Nature Communications, 12 (1), [5891].
(doi:10.1038/s41467-021-26037-w).
Abstract
Topological complex transient electromagnetic fields give access to nontrivial light-matter interactions and provide additional degrees of freedom for information transfer. An important example of such electromagnetic excitations are space-time non-separable single-cycle pulses of toroidal topology, the exact solutions of Maxwell’s equations described by Hellwarth and Nouchi in 1996 and recently observed experimentally. Here we introduce an extended family of electromagnetic excitation, the supertoroidal electromagnetic pulses, in which the Hellwarth-Nouchi pulse is just the simplest member. The supertoroidal pulses exhibit skyrmionic structure of the electromagnetic fields, multiple singularities in the Poynting vector maps and fractal-like distributions of energy backflow. They are of interest for transient light-matter interactions, ultrafast optics, spectroscopy, and toroidal electrodynamics.
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 20 July 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 8 October 2021
Published date: 8 October 2021
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to Janne Ruostekoski for discussions and acknowledge the supports of the MOE Singapore (MOE2016-T3-1-006), the UKs Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant EP/M009122/1, Funder Id: https://doi.org/ 10.13039/501100000266), the European Research Council (advanced grant FLEET-786851, Funder Id: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000781), and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the Nascent Light Matter Interactions program.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 450505
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/450505
ISSN: 2041-1723
PURE UUID: 355c95e9-4a87-4bb2-8dc2-183ed018be65
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Date deposited: 30 Jul 2021 16:32
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:10
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Author:
Yijie Shen
Author:
Yaonan Hou
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