Abstract
Optical skyrmions have recently been constructed by tailoring vectorial near-field distributions through the interference of multiple surface plasmon polaritons, offering promising features for advanced information processing, transport and storage. Here, we provide experimental demonstration of electromagnetic skyrmions based on magnetic localized spoof plasmons (LSP) showing large topological robustness against continuous deformations, without stringent external interference conditions. By directly measuring the spatial profile of all three vectorial magnetic fields, we reveal multiple π-twist target skyrmion configurations mapped to multi-resonant near-equidistant LSP eigenmodes. The real-space skyrmion topology is robust against deformations of the meta-structure, demonstrating flexible skyrmionic textures for arbitrary shapes. The observed magnetic LSP skyrmions pave the way to ultra-compact and robust plasmonic devices, such as flexible sensors, wearable electronics and ultra-compact antennas.
Highlights
Optical skyrmions have recently been constructed by tailoring vectorial near-field distributions through the interference of multiple surface plasmon polaritons, offering promising features for advanced information processing, transport and storage
Unlike previous optical skyrmion configurations based on propagating surface plasmon wave interference, we realize electromagnetic (EM) skyrmions based on magnetic localized spoof plasmons (LSPs) sustained by a wisely designed space-coiling meta-structure, manifesting additional flexibility and robustness provided by the space-coiling guiding mechanism
The fundamental (π-twist) mode corresponds to an elementary skyrmion, with topological charge 1, and the second (2π-twist) mode forms a skyrmionium[6,7,8], with topological charge 0
Summary
Optical skyrmions have recently been constructed by tailoring vectorial near-field distributions through the interference of multiple surface plasmon polaritons, offering promising features for advanced information processing, transport and storage. The skyrmion number S, a topological invariant defined in real space, of the observed skyrmions is unperturbed when the geometry is continuously deformed in arbitrary shapes, leading to robust vectorial field topologies with multi-ring profiles, even in the presence of sharp corners and irregular shapes. Such magnetic LSP skyrmions provide a unique way to build arbitrarily shaped skyrmionic textures unattainable with previous interference approaches, promising for many flexible and robust applications based on skyrmions
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