A research group at the University of Stuttgart has manipulated light through its interaction with a metal surface so that it exhibits entirely new properties. The researchers have published their findings in Nature Physics.

“Our results add another chapter to the emerging field of skyrmion research,” proclaims Prof. Harald Giessen, head of the Fourth Physics Institute at the University of Stuttgart, whose group achieved this breakthrough. The team demonstrated the existence of “skyrmion bags” of light on the surface of a metal layer.