Generation of spatiotemporal optical coil with controllable transverse intensity chirality
Chirality is a fundamental asymmetry in nature. In optics, control of chirality is evolving from spatial properties like polarization to the temporal chirality of local fields. Conventional approaches, however, encode chirality in abstract degrees of freedom such as phase or polarization, limiting direct and efficient coupling with matter on ultrafast timescales. We introduce and experimentally demonstrate a paradigm of intensity-driven optical chirality, where handedness is physically inscribed into the trajectory of spatiotemporal energy flow. Through the engineered non-collinear collision of Spatiotemporal Optical Vortices, the spatiotemporal optical coil is generated. The coil's chirality manifests as a physical torsion of its volumetric energy flow, a property distinct from chirality hidden in phase or polarization. By employing femtosecond tomography and phase-resolved reconstruction, we map the complete three-dimensional spatiotemporal intensity field, directly observing the evolution of singularity lines. This approach reveals programmable scaling relations between the coil's topology and interaction geometry, extending the concept of chirality to the energy-flow level. The introduced volumetric chiral density directly correlates with the optical forces and torques exerted on chiral particles, providing an intensity-manifested degree of freedom for topological photonics and enabling novel schemes for ultrafast chiral-selective excitation and high-dimensional information encoding.
Authors
- Md Sabbir Ahsan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3660-8352)
- Xinhua Xie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1964-4370)
- Zhensheng Tao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8727-3719)
- Qiwen Zhan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8745-4213)
- Guangyu Fan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1404-0009)
- Xingyuan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3106-5395)
- Dawei Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6995-3606)
- Qian Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4730-7742)
- Dana JiaShaner
- Dawei Liu
- Zhirong Tao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1283-4155)
- Huiming Wang
- Yonghang Tai
- Lu Yang
- Kaili Geng
Institutions
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE)
- Hiroshima University (JP)
- Yunnan Normal University (CN)
- University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (CN)
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN)
- Fudan University (CN)
- Paul Scherrer Institute (CH)
- Westlake University (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics (CN)
- International Institute for Sustainability with Knotted Chiral Meta Matter (JP)
- Freie Universität Berlin (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Light Science & Applications
- Published
- 2026-11-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02432-0
- Primary Topic
- Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality
- National Key Research and Development Program of China