Can non-orthogonal bases form stable skyrmionic beams?
Skyrmions, topologically stable spin textures, have recently garnered significant attention in optics promising robust high-density information transition and nontrivial light-matter interaction. It was believed that the optical skyrmionic beams should be constructed by superposition of two orthogonal spatial modes with orthogonal polarizations to obtain topologically stable propagation. Here, we surprisingly find that propagation-stable skyrmionic beams can still be formed by superpositions of neither orthogonal spatial modes nor orthogonal polarizations. We theoretically present the mechanism to control the stable skyrmionics beams through the hybrid superposition of modes from the Hermite-Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian families and experimentally control the longitudinal on-demand dynamics of the skyrmions. This work redefines the topological stability of optical skyrmions, breaks limits and reduces the requirement for manipulating topologically structured light for practical multidimensional implementation of topologically robust information technologies.