Photonic Spin Hopfions and Monopole Loops

Spin textures with various topological orders are of great theoretical and practical interest. Hopfion, a spin texture characterized by a three-dimensional topological order was recently realized in electronic spin systems. Here, we show that monochromatic light can be structured such that its photo...

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Veröffentlicht in:Physical review letters 2023-12, Vol.131 (26), p.263801-263801, Article 263801
Hauptverfasser: Wang, Haiwen, Fan, Shanhui
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:Spin textures with various topological orders are of great theoretical and practical interest. Hopfion, a spin texture characterized by a three-dimensional topological order was recently realized in electronic spin systems. Here, we show that monochromatic light can be structured such that its photonic spin exhibits a hopfion texture in the three-dimensional real space. We also provide ways to construct spin textures of arbitrary Hopf charges. When extending the system to four dimensions by introducing a parameter dimension, a new type of topological defect in the form of a monopole loop in photonic spin is encountered. Each point on the loop is a topological spin defect in three dimensions, and the loop itself carries quantized Hopf charges. Such photonic spin texture and defect may find application in control and sensing of nanoparticles, and optical generation of topological texture in motions of particles or fluids.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.263801