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 E-Mail IMAGE: Spin texture of a second-order half-skyrmion (meron) on the surface of a birefringent cavity. (Source: Physics UW, M. Krol) view more  Credit: Source: Physics UW, M. Krol The scientists have demonstrated how to structure light such that its polarization behaves like a collective of spins in a ferromagnet forming half-skyrmion (also known as merons). To achieve this the light was trapped in a thin liquid crystal layer between two nearly perfect mirrors. Skyrmions in general are found, e.g., as elementary excitations of magnetization in a two-dimensional ferromagnet but do not naturally appear in electromagnetic (light) fields. One of the key concepts in physics, and science overall is the notion of a field which can describe the spatial distribution of a physical quantity. For instance, a weather map shows the distributions of temperature and pressure (these are known as scalar fields), as well as the wind speed and direction (known as a vector field).

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