Revisiting the Design Strategies for Metasurfaces: Fundamental Physics, Optimization, and Beyond

Abstract

Over the last two decades, the capabilities of metasurfaces in light modulation with subwavelength thickness have been proven, and metasurfaces are expected to miniaturize conventional optical components and add various functionalities. Herein, various metasurface design strategies are reviewed thoroughly. First, the scalar diffraction theory is revisited to provide the basic principle of light propagation. Then, widely used design methods based on the unit‐cell approach are discussed. The methods include a set of simplified steps, including the phase‐map retrieval and meta‐atom unit‐cell design. Then, recently emerging metasurfaces that may not be accurately designed using unit‐cell approach are introduced. Unconventional metasurfaces are examined where the conventional design methods fail and finally potential design methods for such metasurfaces are discussed.

Concurrent Optimization of Diffraction Fields from Binary Phase Mask for Three-Dimensional Nanopatterning

“…A proper optimization method and forward simulation are required to achieve the inverse design of the phase mask. , The zeroth and first order diffraction efficiencies have been calculated by changing the height of the mask . Suppressing the zeroth order efficiency can achieve a high quality of 3D nanostructures.…”

Data‐Driven Design for Metamaterials and Multiscale Systems: A Review

“…There are a variety of cases where the deviation of effective properties under periodic boundary conditions at the system level is more than acceptable. [50] Examples include the systems under: i) large deformation, [45,158] ii) strong local coupling among neighbors, [159,160] iii) long-range interactions, [161,162] and iv) heterogeneous loading conditions. [140,163,164] Preparing the datasets that take a supercell (i.e., a collection of neighboring unit cells) instead of a single unit cell as a datapoint could offer a simple yet powerful extension to the unit-cell-based approaches, as shown by refs.…”

“…[43][44][45] As evidence of growing attention to data-driven multiscale design, with or without the use of data, a suite of literature reviews from different communities have been published in recent years. Each review is centered on particular topics, such as design, [46][47][48][49][50] manufacturing, [51,52] mechanics, [50,[53][54][55][56][57][58][59] and specific ML methods. [47] Despite the meaningful contributions of each, and of the aggregate, we recognize a lack of discussion on some points that may impede researchers from unlocking the full potential of data-driven design for multiscale architectures.…”

All-2D material photonic devices

“…Light-matter interaction in 2D material metasurface became popular in recent years. 27,28 Periodic nanostructures made from MoS 2 are reported (Fig. 4d) 22 in 2021 and the structure is used for SH and third harmonic (TH) generation.…”