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Nanophotonic quantum skyrmions enabled by semiconductor cavity quantum electrodynamics

Nature Physics volume 21, pages 1462–1468 (2025)Cite this article

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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.

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Fig. 1: Single-photon skyrmions emitted from a QD coupled to a Gaussian microcavity.
Fig. 2: Skyrmionic modes of the Gaussian microcavity.
Fig. 3: Single-photon emission coupled to the skyrmionic cavity modes.
Fig. 4: Polarization profiles of the cavity-enhanced single-photon skyrmions.
Fig. 5: Robustness of quantum optical skyrmions under different perturbations.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29162057 (ref. 56). Source data are provided with this paper. All other data used in this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

Code availability

All codes produced during this research are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Number 2023YFA1407100 to F.L.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Numbers 62035017 and 12361141824 to J.L., 62422516 and 12474397 to Y.Y., and 12474392 and 12074303 to F.L.), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Grant Number 2023B1515120070 to J.L.) and the National Super-Computer Center in Guangzhou.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jiantao Ma, Jiawei Yang and Shunfa Liu.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, School of Physics, School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Jiantao Ma, Jiawei Yang, Shunfa Liu, Bo Chen, Xueshi Li, Changkun Song, Guixin Qiu, Ying Yu & Jin Liu

  2. School of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronic Engineering, Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Kai Zou & Xiaolong Hu

  3. Key Laboratory for Physical Electronics and Devices of the Ministry of Education & Shaanxi Key Lab of Information Photonic Technique, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Faculty of Electronic and Information Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    Feng Li

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Contributions

J.L. conceived the project. J.M., J.Y., S.L., Y.Y. and J.L. designed the epitaxial structure. J.Y. and C.S. grew the QD wafers. J.M., J.Y., S.L. and G.Q. developed the theoretical model and designed the devices. J.Y. and C.S. fabricated the devices. J.M., S.L., X.L., B.C. and K.Z. built the set-up and performed the optical measurements. J.M., F.L. and J.L. analysed the data. J.L. and J.M. prepared the paper with inputs from all authors. X.H., Y.Y. and J.L. supervised the project.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ying Yu or Jin Liu.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Fabrication process of the Gaussian microcavity.

(a) Epitaxial growth of the bottom semiconductor DBR and QDs. (b) Fabrication of alignment markers. (c) QD positioning by the wide-field fluorescence imaging technique. (d) SiNx and SiO2 deposition by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). (e) Wafer with patterned exposed photoresist after aligned EBL. (f) Lensed-shape photoresist after heat reflow. (g) Lensed-shape SiO2 defect after dry etching. (h) Deterministically coupled QD-microcavity devices after the top dielectric DBR is evaporated.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Characterization of the engineered planar cavity with asymmetry.

(a) Deterministically coupled QD-microcavity devices. (b) Cross sections of the planar cavity. (c) Stimulated reflective spectrum of the symmetric planar cavity with cavity resonance in the center of the stopband. (d) Stimulated cavity modes of the symmetric Gaussian cavity, featuring vanishing SO coupling and exhibiting no mode splitting. (e) Stimulated reflective spectrum of the asymmetric planar cavity with the cavity resonance close to the edge of the stopband. (f) Stimulated cavity modes of the asymmetric Gaussian cavity, featuring appreciable SO coupling and exhibiting pronounced mode splittings. (g) Measured reflective spectrum of the asymmetric planar cavity in (e). (h) Measured cavity modes of the asymmetric Gaussian cavity in (f).

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 3 Principle of the formation of the skyrmion modes in Gaussian microcavity.

(a) Energy levels of the eigenstates of the third mode of the Gaussian cavity with strong spin-orbit coupling. (b) Calculated polarization states and Stokes components of mode 3-Ia and mode 3-Ib of analytical solutions and numerical simulation, which are in excellent agreement. The analytical solutions of the non-Hermitian model are done following the mathematics of Ref. 33 where the definitions of the parameters A and B are from the same reference.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Schematic of the setup for optical characterizations.

The sample with QDs embedded in Gaussian microcavities is located in a closed-cycle cryostat with a superconducting magnet. The base temperature of the closed-cycle cryostat is 1.8 K. The QDs can be excited by 785 nm continuous wave (CW) or pulsed lasers. The emitted single-photons are collected by a × 50 objective with a numerical aperture of 0.65 and sent to an electron-multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD) camera for imaging or coupled to a multimode fiber for spectral analysis, lifetime measurements and Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) measurements. DM1: 650 nm long-pass dichroic mirror, DM2: 805 nm long-pass dichroic mirror, BPF: band-pass filter, BS: beamsplitter, QWP: quarter-wave plate, HWP: half-wave plate.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Skyrmionium in the high-order mode of the Gaussian cavity.

(a) Simulated cavity modes of the Gaussian cavity with a radius of defect equal to 4 μm, which are excited by a σ+ dipole at the center of the cavity. (b) The polarization states and the extracted Stokes components of mode 5-I, mode 5-II, mode 7-I and mode 7-II shown in (a).

Source data

Supplementary information

Source data

Source Data Fig. 2

This source data file contains the raw data used to generate the plots in Fig. 2a,b.

Source Data Fig. 3

This source data file contains the raw data used to generate the plots in Fig. 3b,d–f.

Source Data Extended Data Fig. 2

This source data file contains the raw data used to generate the plots in Extended Data Fig. 2c–h.

Source Data Extended Data Fig. 5

This source data file contains the raw data used to generate the plots in Extended Data Fig. 5a.

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Ma, J., Yang, J., Liu, S. et al. Nanophotonic quantum skyrmions enabled by semiconductor cavity quantum electrodynamics. Nat. Phys. 21, 1462–1468 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-02973-y

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