Customized optical Stokes skyrmion lattices

Skyrmions are topologically stable quasiparticles with complex vector configurations and have been extensively studied in various fields. Recently, optical skyrmions, which are analogous to magnetic skyrmions, have been observed in surface plasmon systems. In optics, skyrmions can be created using various vector fields, including electric fields, spin angular momentum, and polarization Stokes vectors. Stokes skyrmions, in particular, may exhibit exceptional topological stability, preserving their topology during propagation and showing resilience to external disturbances—offering a notable advantage over field and spin skyrmions. In this paper, we demonstrate the generation of Stokes skyrmion lattices on the focal plane. Additionally, we present a method for creating arbitrarily customized focused fields composed of multiple Stokes skyrmions. This approach holds significant potential for applications in information processing, transfer, and storage, owing to the diverse spatial distributions of the focused fields and their topological stability.