Fig. 1: Chiral topological light.

The concept of chiral vortex light for bicircular counter-rotating σ_ω = −σ_2ω = 1 beams carrying OAM ℓ_ω = −ℓ_2ω = 1. a, Tight focusing of bicircular-counter-rotating Gaussian beams induces a longitudinal field, resulting in a synthetic chiral field whose polarization vector draws a chiral Lissajous curve over one laser cycle (inset). b, Evolution of the chiral Lissajous curves with respect to the azimuthal angle θ at a given radial position \(\rho =\sqrt{{x}^{2}+{y}^{2}}\) at z = 0 for a chiral vortex with ℓ_ω = −ℓ_2ω = 1. c, Slices through the electric field distribution at z = 0. The figures show the total intensity of the electric field ∣E∣², the absolute value of the chiral correlation function ∣h⁽⁵⁾∣ and its phase distribution \(\arg \left[{h}^{(5)}\right]\). The phase distribution of h⁽⁵⁾ describes the spatial distribution of the handedness of light and is characterized by a topological charge C = 6. The x and y coordinates are scaled to the waist of the beams (W₀) at the focus.