Imprinting topology on thermal light

Topological structuring of light inevitably leverages on optical coherence to ensure that the imparted spatial phases are preserved, requiring highly coherent sources or coherence engineering embedded in the design.

Now we show that thermal light can be spatially engineered to carry optical topologies in the form of Skyrmions.

Such topologies are immune to time averaged decoherence, a fact we leverage on in reverse to create metasurface mediated incoherent topologies from a thermal source.

The pristine nature of our measured Skyrmions validates the approach, while simulations reveal how coherence management in the metasurface design would further enhance the functionality.

Remarkably, the generation stage inherits robustness from the topology, remaining immune to material and fabrication defects.

Our work reports the first topologies from purely thermal light, opening a path to exploiting topology in ubiquitous everyday light sources.