Skyrmions, originally from condensed matter physics, have been widely explored in various physical systems, including soft matter. A crucial challenge in manipulating topological solitary waves like skyrmions is controlling their flow on demand. Here, we control the arbitrary moving direction of skyrmions in a chiral liquid crystal system by adjusting the bias of the applied alternate current electric field. Specifically, the velocity, including both moving direction and speed can be continuously changed. The motion control of skyrmions originates from the symmetry breaking of the topological structure induced by flexoelectric-polarization effect. The omnidirectional control of topological solitons opens new avenues in light-steering and racetrack memories.
@article{arxiv.2506.16781,
title = {Omnidirectionally manipulated skyrmions in an orientationally chiral system},
author = {Jiahao Chen and Wentao Tang and Xingzhou Tang and Yang Ding and Jie Ni and Yuxi Chen and Bingxiang Li and Rui Zhang and Juan de Pablo and Yanqing Lu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.16781},
year = {2025}
}