A classic 200-year-old light experiment has given scientists a simple new way to create exotic light structures that could help shape the future of computing and photonics.
Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have found a far simpler way to create unusual and stable light structures known as “optical skyrmions.”
These tiny formations involve swirling patterns in the properties of light. Their structure has been compared to the outward-pointing spikes of a hedgehog.
Rather than using expensive and highly engineered materials, the researchers produced the skyrmions by directing a laser at a small circular disc. The setup relies on a classic optical effect called the “Poisson spot.”
The approach could make it much easier for scientists to create, examine, and modify optical skyrmions.
A Simpler Route to Optical Skyrmions
Skyrmions have become an important area of research because of their potential to carry and store information. In the future, they could contribute to new data storage, communication, and computing technologies.
The findings were published in the scientific journal Optica. The research was led by Nanyang Assistant Professor Shen Yijie from NTU’s School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
“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,” explained Asst Prof Shen.
“This could make optical skyrmions much more accessible to researchers. By lowering the technical barrier to creating and studying them, the method opens up new possibilities for scientists to study how they could be used in future optical, materials and computing research.”
Turning a Historic Light Effect Into a Modern Tool
A Poisson spot is a bright point that appears in the center of the shadow created by a circular object when it is illuminated by a coherent light source, such as a laser.
The effect played an important role in an early 19th-century debate about the nature of light. Scientists were trying to determine whether light traveled only in straight lines as particles or could also bend and spread like a wave.
Wave theory predicted that a bright point should appear in the middle of the disc’s shadow, even though that area would normally be expected to remain dark. The appearance of the Poisson spot became a landmark demonstration of diffraction and the wave-like behavior of light.
Light diffraction occurs when light bends and spreads as it passes around an object or moves through a small opening.
Four Skyrmion Patterns in One Light Field
The researchers discovered that their Poisson spot system could generate as many as four related topological field patterns at the same time.
These were spin skyrmions, Stokes skyrmions, electric-field skyrmions, and magnetic-field skyrmions. Spin refers to rotation-like characteristics of light, while Stokes parameters describe polarization, meaning the direction in which light waves vibrate as they move.
This “four-in-one” behavior could give researchers a new way to compare how different optical skyrmions form, change, and interact within a single light field.
In computer simulations, the structures appeared as swirling arrangements of arrows. These arrows illustrated how different properties of light changed direction across the Poisson spot.
Shaping the Properties of Light
Scientists can manipulate many features of light, including its intensity, phase, polarization, spin, and electric and magnetic field vectors.
Each of these properties can produce different topological structures. Such patterns can remain stable even when they are stretched or distorted.
By adjusting the conditions that shape the light field, researchers may eventually be able to control the size, form, and behavior of the skyrmions more precisely.
Asst Prof Shen said: “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.
“Being able to produce and compare several skyrmions within one system could help researchers uncover new links between light’s electric, magnetic and other physical properties.”
Potential Uses in Photonics and Computing
Skyrmions were first proposed in particle and nuclear physics. They were later investigated in condensed matter physics and magnetic materials before becoming a growing focus in photonics, where they appear as stable, particle-like patterns within light fields.
Earlier studies typically created optical skyrmions using metamaterials. These are artificially engineered micro-sized structures that manipulate light in ways ordinary materials cannot.
The new findings provide a foundation for further research into topological light. Over time, the work could contribute to advances in photonics, advanced materials, information processing, and computing.
Reference: “Optical skyrmions in Poisson spots” by Jun Yao, Xi Xie, Yuan Meng, Sheng Sun, Jun Hu, Yijie Shen and Yuanjie Yang, 19 June 2026, Optica.
DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.591840
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1 Comment
By using a simple circular disc to force light waves into complex, self-assembling vortex fields, these researchers proved that you don’t need multi-million-dollar materials or massive power supplies to create stable structures. The static geometry of the boundary handles 100% of the plumbing automatically.Most people argue about how the elements form and break down because they think the universe is a chaotic vacuum where you have to smash separate “Lego bricks” together to build something. They miss the foundational truth that the background matrix is already highly compressed and carrying its own baseline pressure ($+\pi$).This experiment completely validates the Torsion Hill logic: an element or a field isn’t a collection of loose parts—it is a stable, localized vortex pinched right out of the matrix by the shape of the boundary itself. When you get the geometric layout right, the medium shapes itself and the universe handles the rest of the work for free.