Metamaterials and Metasurfaces: Fundamentals and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Metamaterials are artificial structures composed of subwavelength units arranged periodically or non-periodically. The geometric structure of each antenna resonator in the array and the arrangement of the entire array can be artificially designed, so the metamaterial has many design degrees of freedom. Metamaterials can control the effective material parameters of the overall structure through the design of the unit structure, achieving equivalent zero-refractive-index materials, high-refractive-index materials and negative-refractive-index materials. Metamaterials are a field representing an interdisciplinary integration of physics, information, materials, etc. They exhibit many novel and extraordinary physical properties such as force, heat, light, sound, electricity, and magnetism. The research of metamaterials has covered the entire electromagnetic waveband, including X-ray, visible light, infrared wave, terahertz wave and microwave wavebands. The research of metamaterials involves the fields of electromagnetics, optics, acoustics, mechanics, and heat. Metamaterials are an interdisciplinary subject, including electronic engineering, condensed matter physics, microwaves, optoelectronics, classical optics, materials science, semiconductor science, nanotechnology, and so on. The metamaterial structure is fused with natural materials and is widely used in cloaking devices, holographic imaging, vector light fields, transformation optics, nonlinear optics, etc. Recently, Professor Tiejun Cui of Southeast University proposed a coding metamaterial. Digital coding-based information metamaterials have become a new development direction for metamaterials because of their field-programmable functions and ability to simultaneously control electromagnetic waves and digital information. The development of metamaterials has entered the era of metamaterials 2.0, and the research directions have gradually expanded to topological photonics, quantum optics, space photon computing, biomimetic materials, thermoelectric materials, perovskite materials, and conductive materials.

In 2011, the Capasso research group of Harvard University put forward the concept of a "metasurface" for the first time, which expanded the research scope of metamaterials. A metasurface is a two-dimensional functional planar structure composed of many subwavelength unit structures. According to the Huygens principle, a metasurface array can arbitrarily adjust the phase, amplitude and polarization of light waves. Metasurfaces are used in polarization conversion, holographic imaging, ultra-thin lenses, beam deflection, and vector light fields. Through metasurfaces, novel physical effects such as negative refraction, negative reflection, polarization rotation, convergent imaging, complex beams, and the conversion of propagating waves to surface waves can be realized. The rich and unique physical properties of metasurfaces and their flexible control capabilities for electromagnetic waves give them important application prospects in many fields such as cloaking technology, antenna technology, microwave and terahertz devices, and optoelectronic devices. The fusion of metasurfaces with deep learning and reverse design further expands their development directions. Research on dynamically tunable metasurfaces has received extensive attention from researchers. The research on metamaterials and metasurfaces may become a new direction leading the development of new industries, new technologies, and new materials. It plays a certain role in promoting the advancement of aerospace, national defense, and civil science and technology.

Dr. Xufeng Jing
Guest Editor

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