Shaping and controlling electromagnetic waves have wide-ranging scientific and practical implications. In this talk, I will present a few theoretical proposals to generate novel topological structures in light. In particular, I show that the transmission nodal lines are general topological responses from non-local metasurfaces and can be used to generate spatiotemporal optical vortices. Additionally, I discuss the possible topological structures that can occur in electromagnetic waves. I show that three-dimensional topological structures, known as hopfions and Shankar skyrmions can be created in free-space electromagnetic waves. Such complex shaping of light may be used for optical emulation of new topological physics, or be used in optical trapping and manipulation applications.
HK Institute of Quantum Science & Technology,
Room525, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building, The University of Hong Kong
Phone: 3917 1108
