Recent Progress in Metasurfaces: An Introductory Note from Fundamentals and Design Methods to Applications

Metasurfaces refer to the sub-wavelength nanostructures that are capable of manipulating the amplitude, phase, polarization, and other characteristics of light, to enable diverse applications across the ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and terahertz spectra. In this review paper, we aim to provide an introductory note on metasurfaces, from fundamentals and design methods to applications, such as biosensing, environmental monitoring, metalenses, optical cloaking, electromagnetic scattering, structural color, miniaturized devices, and others. Moreover, we also identify the key challenges and limitations of metasurfaces, such as fabrication, integration, optimization, tuning, signal processing, and analysis, and suggest possible directions and solutions for future research. At last, we envision several emerging and promising trends for metasurfaces, such as new materials and structures, new phenomena and mechanisms, machine learning, and artificial intelligence techniques. The review is expected to inspire future development in this exciting and rapidly evolving field of metasurface devices.