Spatiotemporally Localized Optical Links and Knots

Optical links and knots have attracted growing attention owing to their exotic topologic features and promising applications in next-generation information transfer and storage. However, current protocols for optical topology realization rely on paraxial propagation of spatial modes, which inherently limits their three-dimensional topological structures to longitudinal space-filling. In this work we propose and experimentally demonstrate a scheme for creating optical knots and links that are localized in space within a transverse plane of a paraxial field, as well as in time. These spatiotemporal topological structures arise from polychromatic wave fields with tightly coupled spatial and temporal degrees of freedom that can be realized in the form of superpositions of toroidal light vortices of opposite topological charges. The (2+1)-dimensional nature of a toroidal light vortex imparts spatiotemporally localized wave fields with nontrivial topological textures, encompassing both individual and nested links or knots configurations. Moreover, the resulting topological textures are localized on an ultrashort timescale propagate at the group velocity of the wave packets and exhibit remarkable topological robustness during propagation as optical carriers. The nascent connection between spatiotemporally localized fields and topology offers exciting prospects for advancing space-time photonic topologies and exploring their potential applications in high-capacity informatics and communications.