Self-healing of optical skyrmionic beams

Abstract Structured light with self-healing properties against partial obstructions has gained significant interest due to its potential applications in both fundamental and applied sciences. Here, we present a comprehensive investigation on the self-healing properties of the topological structure of optical skyrmionic beams, by exploiting numerical simulation and experimental spatial light modulation. It is shown that the standard skyrmionic beams exhibit a strong self-healing ability, as revealed by the rapid increase in the skyrmion number after obstacles. Moreover, the skyrmionic beams possess better self-healing ability against disk-type obstacles at the beam center than aperture-type obstacles at the periphery. Our results indicate the robustness of topologically structured beams against various obstructions, guiding practical applications such as robust information transfers.