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1. Slot driven dielectric electromagnetically induced transparency metasurface

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.488704  

   Ndukaife, Theodore A.; Yang, Sui (January 2023, Optics Express)

   The control of resonant metasurface for electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) offers unprecedented opportunities to tailor lightwave coupling at the nanoscale leading to many important applications including slow light devices, optical filters, chemical and biosensors. However, the realization of EIT relies on the high degree of structural asymmetry by positional displacement of optically resonant structures, which usually lead to low quality factor (Q-factor) responses due to the light leakage from structural discontinuity from asymmetric displacements. In this work, we demonstrate a new pathway to create high quality EIT metasurface without any displacement of constituent resonator elements. The mechanism is based on the detuning of the resonator modes which generate dark-bright mode interference by simply introducing a slot in metasurface unit cells (meta-atoms). More importantly, the slot diameter and position on the meta-atom can be modulated to tune the transmittance and quality factor (Q-factor) of the metasurface, leading to a Q-factor of 1190 and near unity transmission at the same time. Our work provides a new degree of freedom in designing optically resonant elements for metamaterials and metasurfaces with tailored wave propagation and properties. 

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2. Metasurfaces with Multipolar Resonances and Enhanced Light–Matter Interaction

   https://doi.org/10.3390/nano15070477  

   Arup, Evan Modak; Liu, Li; Mekonnen, Haben; Bosomtwi, Dominic; Babicheva, Viktoriia E (April 2025, Nanomaterials)

   Metasurfaces, composed of engineered nanoantennas, enable unprecedented control over electromagnetic waves by leveraging multipolar resonances to tailor light–matter interactions. This review explores key physical mechanisms that govern their optical properties, including the role of multipolar resonances in shaping metasurface responses, the emergence of bound states in the continuum (BICs) that support high-quality factor modes, and the Purcell effect, which enhances spontaneous emission rates at the nanoscale. These effects collectively underpin the design of advanced photonic devices with tailored spectral, angular, and polarization-dependent properties. This review discusses recent advances in metasurfaces and applications based on them, highlighting research that employs full-wave numerical simulations, analytical and semi-analytic techniques, multipolar decomposition, nanofabrication, and experimental characterization to explore the interplay of multipolar resonances, bound and quasi-bound states, and enhanced light–matter interactions. A particular focus is given to metasurface-enhanced photodetectors, where structured nanoantennas improve light absorption, spectral selectivity, and quantum efficiency. By integrating metasurfaces with conventional photodetector architectures, it is possible to enhance responsivity, engineer photocarrier generation rates, and even enable functionalities such as polarization-sensitive detection. The interplay between multipolar resonances, BICs, and emission control mechanisms provides a unified framework for designing next-generation optoelectronic devices. This review consolidates recent progress in these areas, emphasizing the potential of metasurface-based approaches for high-performance sensing, imaging, and energy-harvesting applications. 

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3. Single atom trapping in a metasurface lens optical tweezer

   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2110.11559  

   Hsu, T-W; Zhu, W.; Thiele, T.; Brown, M.O.; Papp, S.B.; Agrawal, A.; Regal, C.A. (July 2022, ArXivorg)

   Optical metasurfaces of sub-wavelength pillars have provided new capabilities for the versatile definition of the amplitude, phase, and polarization of light. In this work we demonstrate that an efficient dielectric metasurface lens can be used to trap and image single neutral atoms. We characterize the high numerical aperture optical tweezers using the trapped atoms and compare to numerical computations of the metasurface lens performance. We predict future metasurfaces for atom trapping can leverage multiple ongoing developments in metasurface design and enable multifunctional control in complex experiments with neutral-atoms arrays. 

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4. Active optical metasurfaces: comprehensive review on physics, mechanisms, and prospective applications

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6633/ac2aaf  

   Yang, Jingyi; Gurung, Sudip; Bej, Subhajit; Ni, Peinan; Howard Lee, Ho Wai (March 2022, Reports on Progress in Physics)

   Abstract Optical metasurfaces with subwavelength thickness hold considerable promise for future advances in fundamental optics and novel optical applications due to their unprecedented ability to control the phase, amplitude, and polarization of transmitted, reflected, and diffracted light. Introducing active functionalities to optical metasurfaces is an essential step to the development of next-generation flat optical components and devices. During the last few years, many attempts have been made to develop tunable optical metasurfaces with dynamic control of optical properties (e.g., amplitude, phase, polarization, spatial/spectral/temporal responses) and early-stage device functions (e.g., beam steering, tunable focusing, tunable color filters/absorber, dynamic hologram, etc) based on a variety of novel active materials and tunable mechanisms. These recently-developed active metasurfaces show significant promise for practical applications, but significant challenges still remain. In this review, a comprehensive overview of recently-reported tunable metasurfaces is provided which focuses on the ten major tunable metasurface mechanisms. For each type of mechanism, the performance metrics on the reported tunable metasurface are outlined, and the capabilities/limitations of each mechanism and its potential for various photonic applications are compared and summarized. This review concludes with discussion of several prospective applications, emerging technologies, and research directions based on the use of tunable optical metasurfaces. We anticipate significant new advances when the tunable mechanisms are further developed in the coming years. 

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5. Non-Hermitian planar elastic metasurface for unidirectional focusing of flexural waves

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0097177  

   Stojanoska, Katerina; Shen, Chen (June 2022, Applied Physics Letters)

   Metasurfaces exhibiting spatially asymmetric inner structures have been shown to host unidirectional scattering effects, benefiting areas where directional control of waves is desired. In this work, we propose a non-Hermitian planar elastic metasurface to achieve unidirectional focusing of flexural waves. The unit cells are constructed by piezoelectric disks and metallic blocks that are asymmetrically loaded. A tunable material loss is then introduced by negative capacitance shunting. By suitably engineering the induced loss profile, a series of unit cells are designed, which can individually access the exceptional points manifested by unidirectional zero reflection. We then construct a planar metasurface by tuning the reflected phase to ensure constructive interference at one side of the metasurface. Unidirectional focusing of the incident waves is demonstrated, where the reflected wave energy is focused from one direction, and zero reflection is observed in the other direction. The proposed metasurface enriches the flexibility in asymmetric elastic wave manipulation as the loss and the reflected phase can be tailored independently in each unit cell. 

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