Bloch-type photonic skyrmions in optical chiral multilayers

Magnetic skyrmions are topological quasiparticles in magnetization. Recently, as one of their photonic counterparts, Neel-type photonic skyrmions were discovered in evanescent electromagnetic waves. The deep-subwavelength features of the photonic skyrmions suggest their potential in optical imaging quantum technologies and data storage. Here, by exploiting the photonic quantum spin Hall effect of a plasmonic vortex in a trilayered structure, we predict the existence of photonic twisted-Neel- and Bloch-type skyrmions in chiral materials. Their chirality-dependent features can be considered as additional degrees of freedom for future chiral sensing, information processing, and storage technologies. In particular, our findings enrich the formations of photonic skyrmions and reveal a remarkable resemblance of the feature of chiral materials in two seemingly distant fields: photonic skyrmions and magnetic skyrmions.