Optical Möbius Snails

Among these, the Möbius strip stands out as a canonical structure that has recently inspired intriguing optical physics.In this work, we extend this concept into the high-dimensional realm by using an optical analogue-the optical Möbius snail. Specifically, employing a skyrmionic beam as the input field, tight focusing yields a continuous family of Möbius strips that exists in three-dimensional space, giving rise to a snail-like polarization topological texture.

Furthermore, we demonstrate full-field polarization tomography and achieve switchable control of this optical snail texture by tuning the Skyrme number of the incident skyrmionic beam. Our findings establish a direct bridge between low- and high-dimensional Möbius geometries, opening a new platform for exploring complex spatial topology and tailored light-matter interactions.