Abstract
Topological photonic crystals provide a powerful platform for manipulating light. However, their flexibility in realizing diverse far-field beam profiles and polarization states is limited by the number of spatial symmetries lattices can provide. Here, we demonstrate plasmonic Dirac-vortex lasers with controlled polarization and intensity distributions by engineering photonic mass vortices in a three-dimensional parameter space. We design plasmonic Dirac-vortex cavities consisting of honeycomb lattices of aluminum nanoparticles, where photonic mass vortices are achieved by arranging distorted unit cells in an angular winding configuration. By manipulating the radial and azimuthal displacements of the nanoparticles as well as their size, taken as the third dimension of the system, we predict far-field radiation with spatially programmable polarization states and asymmetric intensity distributions. Experimentally, this is achieved by integrating organic dye molecules within the plasmonic Dirac-vortex cavities. Our work establishes a paradigm for multi-dimensional mass-enabled cavity engineering, which offers flexibility in sculpting exotic photonic states with broad implications for photonic circuits, quantum devices, and bosonic systems.
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Data availability
The data generated during this study have been deposited in the Zenodo repository67: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18700663.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 12404442 to J.G., No. 12374310 to X.A., Nos. 62475225 and 12404187 to B.X., and No. 62405076 to J.H.), 1 + 1 + 1 CUHK-CUHK(SZ)-GDSTC Joint Collaboration Fund (No. 2025A0505000052 to J.G.), Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (Nos. JCYJ20250604141202003, JCYJ20240813113603005, and RCBS20231211090623036 to J.G., No. JCYJ20240813104929039 to J.H., and JCYJ20240813113619025 to B.X.), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (No. 2023A1515110685 to J.G., No. 2025A1515011713 to J.H., and No. 2024A1515012031 to B.X.), Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Aggregate Science (to J.G.), Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Semiconductor Optoelectronic Materials and Intelligent Photonic Systems (No. 2023B1212010003 to J.G. and J.H.), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2024M753105 to N.M.), Guangdong Provincial Quantum Science Strategic Initiative (No. GDZX2506001 to J.G., and No. GDZX2306002 to J.H.), National Key R&D Program of China (Nos. 2023YFA1407700 and 2025YFA1412300 to B.X.), Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province (Nos. 2023A1515110091 and 2023QN10C200 to X.Z.). The authors would like to acknowledge the Materials Characterization and Preparation Center of the School of Science and Engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) for the technical support.
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M.Z. and J.G. conceived the idea. M.Z. performed the simulations, designed the devices, and conducted the sample characterization and optical measurements. X.B. and M.S. fabricated the samples. N.M. and D.Z. assisted in data interpretation. B.X., J.H., and X.Z. contributed to refining the theoretical work. X.A. guided the sample fabrication. J.G. guided the experimental and theoretical investigations. M.Z. and J.G. wrote the manuscript, and all authors revised the manuscript.
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Zhong, M., Bi, X., Song, M. et al. Plasmonic Dirac-vortex lasers via three-dimensional photonic mass vortices engineering. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70833-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70833-1
