Affiliations 

  • 1 Institute of Advanced Optics and Photonics, Department of Applied Optics, Hanbat National University, Daejeon, 34158, Korea. cwlee42@hanbat.ac.kr
  • 2 Institute of Advanced Optics and Photonics, Department of Applied Optics, Hanbat National University, Daejeon, 34158, Korea
  • 3 Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. jhj413@gmail.com
Nano Converg, 2020 Jan 20;7(1):3.
PMID: 31956942 DOI: 10.1186/s40580-019-0213-2

Abstract

Demand on optical or photonic applications in the visible or short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) spectra, such as vision, virtual or augmented displays, imaging, spectroscopy, remote sensing (LIDAR), chemical reaction sensing, microscopy, and photonic integrated circuits, has envisaged new type of subwavelength-featured materials and devices for controlling electromagnetic waves. The study on metasurfaces, of which the thickness is either comparable to or smaller than the wavelength of the considered incoming electromagnetic wave, has been grown rapidly to embrace the needs of developing sub 100-micron active photonic pixelated devices and their arrayed form. Meta-atoms in metasurfaces are now actively controlled under external stimuli to lead to a large phase shift upon the incident light, which has provided a huge potential for arrayed two-dimensional active optics. This short review summarizes actively tunable or reconfigurable metasurfaces for the visible or SWIR spectra, to account for the physical operating principles and the current issues to overcome.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.