Optics seminar series: Skyrmion structure in vector beams

Optics seminar series: Skyrmion structure in vector beams

Optics seminar series
Date: Thursday 17 January 2019
Time: 16:00 - 16:30
Venue: Lecture theatre 312, Kelvin Building
Category: Public lectures
Speaker: Scarlett Gao

Vector beams have both a spatially varying amplitude and polarization, for light, or spin direction for electrons. Associated with these we find a topological feature, the skyrmion number, that it is robust against any deformation during propagation. The simplest way to map out this feature is to use the associated skyrmion field. This is a transverse or divergenceless field and so has neither sources nor sinks. Mapping out the skyrmion field for these beams reveals constraints on the manner in which vector beams can be manipulated.

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