Skyrmions and vectorial wavefunctions
| dc.contributor.author | Ornelas, Pedro | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Forbes , Andrew | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-10-30T07:36:37Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-10-30T07:36:37Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024 | |
| dc.description | A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the Faculty of Science , School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024 | |
| dc.description.abstract | The study and generation of robust structured light stand as compelling areas of focus in the exploration of future classical and quantum photonic technologies. While the appeal of structuring light in all its degrees of freedom (DOFs) is undeniable, achieving the generation of intricate light resilient to noise from multiple sources, such as faulty detectors, stray white light, and atmospheric turbulence, is imperative for its practical integration into forthcoming technologies. Recently, there has been a lot of interest in generating states of light with identifiable topological features which are robust to local deformations thus providing such states with a possible mechanism for noise rejection. Topological structures known as optical skyrmions have garnered a lot of interest in the optics community of late as their magnetic counterparts have shown great promise as potential low-power information carriers. It has been shown that skyrmionic structures may be realised in classical free-space optical beams where their spatial and polarization DOFs are appropriately combined and manipulated to generate what are known as vector beams. Furthermore with the emergence of quantum structured light allowing for the manipulation of an individual photon’s DOFs, such topological structures may also be utilized as a resource for photonic based quantum technologies. In this dissertation we investigate the generation of classical optical skyrmions through the use of Bessel-Gaussian optical modes possessing interesting propagation dynamics which mimic magnetic systems under the application of a magnetic field. Furthermore, we extend the study of optical skyrmions to the quantum realm by generating and characterizing the topology of the quantum analogue to classical vector beams: hybrid entangled states where the spatial DOF of one photon is entangled with the polarization DOF of another. In this case the skyrmionic topology emerges as a shared property of both photons and can be identified through investigating their mutual correlations. We postulate a novel topological characterization of entangled states with the corollary that smooth deformations of these states do not change their topology and thus do not change how they are characterized. We show that the topology remains intact even when entanglement is fragile and further discuss how a typical mechanism for entanglement decay can be characterized as a smooth deformation. Lastly, we investigate the topological resilience of hybrid entangled states in the presence of isotropic noise usually attributed to external sources. We demonstrate the invariance of the topology of these states to varying levels of isotropic noise and discuss the associated mechanism for this invariance. | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Council of Scientific | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Industrial Research (CSIR) | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Department of Science and Technology (DST)-Interbursary Support (IBS) | |
| dc.description.submitter | MM2024 | |
| dc.faculty | Faculty of Science | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Ornelas, Pedro. (2024). Skyrmions and vectorial wavefunctions [Master’s dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WireDSpace. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10539/42110 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg | |
| dc.rights | © 2024 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. | |
| dc.rights.holder | University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg | |
| dc.school | School of Physics | |
| dc.subject | Skyrmions | |
| dc.subject | Vectorial wavefunctions | |
| dc.subject | (DOFs) | |
| dc.subject | UCTD | |
| dc.subject.other | SDG-4: Quality education | |
| dc.title | Skyrmions and vectorial wavefunctions | |
| dc.type | Dissertation |