NTU Singapore Physicists Generate Four Optical Skyrmion Types at Once Using a 200-Year-Old Poisson Spot Effect
NTU Singapore researchers used the two-century-old Poisson spot phenomenon to generate optical skyrmions with a simple laser and disc, skipping costly metamaterials.
Overview
Researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have discovered a novel method for generating optical skyrmions — tiny, swirling light patterns — by leveraging the Poisson spot, a classic optical effect documented over two centuries ago, according to NTU Singapore. The work, led by Assistant Professor Shen Yijie of NTU’s School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, was published in the journal Optica, according to phys.org, which cites the paper’s digital object identifier as 10.1364/optica.591840, while ScienceDaily cites the article as Optica, 2026, volume 13, issue 6, page 1184, and the same DOI.
What We Know
Optical skyrmions are tiny, swirling configurations in the properties of light that resemble hedgehog spikes, according to phys.org. Rather than relying on the complex, costly engineered metamaterials that have typically been required to produce them, the NTU team demonstrated that a simple laser directed at a small circular disc can produce these stable light configurations, according to NTU Singapore.
That disc-and-laser setup is built around the Poisson spot, an optical phenomenon discovered during 19th-century debates about light’s nature, when scientists questioned whether light traveled only as particles or behaved as waves, according to ScienceDaily. Wave theory predicted a bright point would appear at a circular object’s shadow center — contradicting expectations of complete darkness — and observing this phenomenon provided evidence that light undergoes diffraction, bending and spreading around objects, ScienceDaily reports.
“What is remarkable is that optical skyrmions can now be generated using a simple effect where light bends around an object, without relying on expensive, complex man-made metamaterials or highly specialized techniques,” Shen said, according to ScienceDaily, a quote that also appears in NTU Singapore’s own release and in SciTechDaily’s coverage.
The team also found that its setup simultaneously generated four related topological patterns: spin skyrmions, Stokes skyrmions, electric-field skyrmions, and magnetic-field skyrmions, according to NTU Singapore and phys.org. “In the light spot that we created, several types of optical vectors could form topological structures at the same time. These different components of light are closely connected, but they do not necessarily form identical topological patterns,” Shen said, according to ScienceDaily.
Why It Matters
Skyrmions are considered stable, particle-like patterns with potential applications in information storage, communications, and computing systems, according to phys.org. By replacing costly engineered materials with a laser and a disc, the NTU method lowers the barrier to producing and studying optical skyrmions, according to SciTechDaily, which reported that the “four-in-one” capability enables comparative study of how different optical skyrmions interact within a single light field.
What We Don’t Know
News coverage of the Optica paper varies on the exact calendar date of publication, and the paper’s full text was not independently accessible for this report beyond its DOI record, so the precise publication day and additional technical details beyond what is summarized in secondary coverage remain unconfirmed. It is also not yet clear from available reporting when or whether the technique will move beyond a laboratory demonstration toward practical data storage, communications, or computing applications.