Nanophotonic quantum skyrmions enabled by semiconductor cavity quantum electrodynamics

Abstract

Skyrmions are topologically stable quasiparticles that have been investigated in contexts including particle physics, quantum field theory, acoustics and condensed-matter physics. Quantum optical skyrmions with local topological textures are expected to reshape the landscape of quantum photonic technology, although their experimental implementation has not yet been demonstrated. Here we present experimental realizations of nanophotonic quantum skyrmions using a semiconductor cavity quantum electrodynamics system. By manipulating the photonic spin–orbit coupling in a Gaussian microcavity, we obtained a confined optical mode whose polarizations feature skyrmionic topologies. With pronounced cavity quantum electrodynamics effects, we generated and detected single-photon skyrmions from a solid-state quantum emitter deterministically coupled to the Gaussian microcavity. The polarity associated with single-photon skyrmions can be swapped by flipping the polarization of the quantum emitter through the Zeeman effect. We also investigated the topological protection of quantum optical skyrmions under different perturbations. Our work opens an unexplored aspect of quantum light–matter interactions in the nanoscale and might advance resilient photonic quantum technology with high-dimensional qubits and high-capacity quantum memories.