Photonic Pseudospin Skyrmion in Momentum Space

Abstract

Magnetic Skyrmions are topologically protected spin structures with sophisticated swirls of electron spins. In recent times, photonic counterparts of the magnetic Skyrmions have been discovered with new deep-subwavelength characteristics promising for future applications in optical information storage and transfer. While the photonic Skyrmions in real space have been observed in diverse photonic systems, studies on the photonic Skyrmions in momentum space have rarely been done. Here we show different forms of pseudospin Skyrmion around the Dirac point in momentum space of photonic crystals with the Kagome and honeycomb lattice. The pseudospin Skyrmions in momentum space are directly related to the topologically nontrivial states and manipulated by the inter-cell and intra-cell interactions between cylinders of the photonic crystal. The observation of the pseudospin Skyrmion in momentum space is expected to be valuable for manipulation of the flows and polarizations of light in topologically robust ways.