Topologically crafted spatiotemporal vortices in acoustics

Abstract

Vortices in fluids and gases have piqued the human interest for centuries. Development of classical-wave physics and quantum mechanics highlighted wave vortices characterized by phase singularities and topological charges. In particular, vortex beams have found numerous applications in modern optics and other areas. Recently, optical spatiotemporal vortex states exhibiting the phase singularity both in space and time have been described. Here, we report the topologically robust generation of acoustic spatiotemporal vortex pulses. We utilize an acoustic meta-grating with broken mirror symmetry which exhibits a topological phase transition with a pair of phase singularities with opposite topological charges emerging in the momentum-frequency domain. We show that these vortices are topologically robust against structural perturbations of the meta-grating and can be employed for the generation of spatiotemporal vortex pulses. Our work paves the way for studies and applications of spatiotemporal structured waves in acoustics and other wave systems.