This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Magnetic skyrmions (MSks) are swirling patterns of magnetization that form inside certain magnetic materials. They can behave like actual particles in many ways, exhibiting a stable internal structure and distinct boundaries.
Because they are extremely small and can be pushed around with relatively little energy, MSks are regarded as promising information carriers in emerging technologies, including low-power memories and logic circuits. However, a major goal in the field has been to find practical ways to control their motion with high precision. Interestingly, MSks have a counterpart in light called optical skyrmions (OSks).
These are structured polarization textures of electromagnetic fields that share the same underlying topological description as MSks. Despite their common topology, the two have been largely studied separately in their respective fields of magnetism and photonics. This raises a fundamental question: Can the topology of light control the dynamics of a MSk?
A research team led by professor Masahito Mochizuki in the Department of Applied Physics at Waseda University, Japan, and Dr. Lan Bo, a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) postdoctoral fellow at Waseda University, attempted to fill the knowledge gap using micromagnetic simulations. Their study, co-authored by Dr.
Xichao Zhang, a former research associate professor at Waseda University, was published online in the journal Physical Review Letters on Sept. 14, 2026. Bo says, "The inspiration for this study came from a simple question: What happens when two different forms of topology, one in matter and one in light, meet? What fascinated us is that MSks and OSks are physically very different, that is, one exists in a magnetic material and the other in an electromagnetic field, but they are described by essentially the same topological concept." He adds, "We therefore asked whether the topology and internal structure of light could directly control the dynamics of a topological magnetic texture." In their study, the team demonstrated the interaction between two forms of similar topologies: MSk and OSk.
They explored how an OSk beam affects the motion of a single MSk on a thin magnetic layer. The beam was created using two types of structured light known as Laguerre-Gaussian modes, whose combined phase and polarization properties give rise to a skyrmion polarization pattern. The researchers then simulated how this generated optical field may drive the motion of the MSk using equations describing the light's effect on magnetization and the internal dynamics of the magnetic material.
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