Solitons attract a great deal of interest in many fields, ranging from optics to fluid mechanics, cosmology, particle physics and condensed matter. However, solitons of these very different types rarely coexist and interact with each other. Here we develop a system that hosts optical solitons coexisting with topological solitonic structures localized in the molecular alignment field of a soft birefringent medium. We experimentally demonstrate and theoretically explain optomechanical interactions between such optical and topological solitons, mediated by the local transfer of momentum between light and matter and the nonlocal orientational elasticity of the liquid-crystal phase used in our system. We show that the delicate balance arising from these different contributions to the optomechanical force enables facile dynamical control and spatial localization of topological solitons. Our findings reveal unusual solitonic tractor beams and emergent light–matter self-patterning phenomena that could aid in creating new breeds of nonlinear photonic materials and devices.

孤子在许多领域都引起了极大的兴趣，从光学到流体力学、宇宙学、粒子物理学和凝聚态物质。然而，这些非常不同类型的孤子很少共存并相互作用。在这里，我们开发了一个系统，该系统包含与位于软双折射介质的分子排列场中的拓扑孤子结构共存的光学孤子。我们通过实验证明和理论上解释了这种光学和拓扑孤子之间的光机械相互作用，由光和物质之间的局部动量转移和我们系统中使用的液晶相的非局部取向弹性介导。我们表明，这些对光机械力的不同贡献所产生的微妙平衡使得拓扑孤子的动态控制和空间定位变得容易。我们的研究结果揭示了不寻常的孤子牵引光束和出现的光物质自模式现象，这些现象可能有助于创造新型非线性光子材料和器件。