Recent Advances and Prospects of Optical Metasurfaces

Abstract

As an artificial planar composite medium, optical metasurfaces exhibit powerful multidimensional optical modulations at the subwavelength scale. With the aid of intelligent algorithms, versatile wavefront engineering and holographic multiplexing based on optical metasurfaces are being intensively developed. Micronano manufacturing technology provides indispensable support for proof-of-concept and mass production. With the support of these advanced technologies, optical metasurfaces have been developed for a wide range of applications and their compactness, versatility, and compatibility have been fully demonstrated. In this Perspective, we summarize recent advances. In addition, we discuss the challenges and prospects of optical metasurfaces.

On-Chip Meticulous Grayscale High-Resolution Meta-Display

“…As a key research area in photonic science and technology, optical display and imaging encompass an extensive range of fields such as human eyes, digital cameras, optical communications, microscopes, and astronomical telescopes. In the recent decade, the invention of metasurfaces has exhibited the unprecedented capability of free-space light-field manipulation, − leading to various meta-display functionalities and applications. − More recently, the incorporation of metasurfaces onto optical waveguides has emerged as a compact platform for the manipulation of guided waves, garnering substantial attention and unveiling a progressive avenue of research . Through point-by-point modulating the guided waves along the on-chip scheme, various functionalities and application scenarios based on on-chip integrated metasurfaces have been enabled, including on-chip beam-steering, on-chip metalens, − vortex beam generator, , multiplexed meta-holography, − virtual/augmented reality, − screen display, etc.…”

“…Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an onchip metasurface integrated on a waveguide to enable a highresolution meticulous grayscale image display in the broadband visible regime. By employing the displacements between metadiatoms and their interference at the nanoscale, the intensity levels of the out-coupling lightwave can be continuously modulated to encode high-resolution (pixel size of 440 × 440 nm 2 ) and broadband grayscale image information. Moreover, by further spatially hybridizing the meta-diatom interferences along both x-/y-directions, the proposed on-chip meta-optic device successfully encodes directionally selective dual-channel grayscale image information.…”

Random broadband filters based on combination of metasurface and multilayer thin films for hyperspectral imaging

“…Among the previously mentioned broadband random filters, metasurface stand out as artificial two-dimensional materials endowed with the remarkable ability to flexibly manipulate light and facilitate optical computations [35][36][37][38][39][40]. Due to the compatibility of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), metasurface-based micro-spectrometers have shown great advantages of achieving snapshot spectral imaging without the need for spatial scanning.…”

Metasurface‐Based Orbital Angular Momentum Multi‐Dimensional Demultiplexer and Decoder

“…With the tremendous development of nanofabrication technology, metasurface has ushered in a new era for many optical research fields, such as hologram, [30][31][32][33][34] imaging, [35][36][37][38] and beam deflections. [39,40] As a type of 2D optical element consisting of sub-wavelength nanostructures, metasurfaces offer a powerful tool for light modulation of amplitude, phase, and polarization, opening up remarkable possibilities for highly integrated and miniaturized OAM generation, [41][42][43] multiplexer, [44] and demultiplexer.…”