Chenxi Zhang, Linyu Cong, Jinhong Zhang, Hongbei Meng, Sirui Peng, Shijin Li, He Zhang, Yikun Wang, Bo Fu, Jiyong Wang, Min Qiu
Metasurfaces, artificial two-dimensional layered materials with a sub-wavelength thickness, have gained significant interest due to their unparalleled ability to precisely manipulate the amplitude, polarization, phase, and other intrinsic properties of electromagnetic waves. In addition, the development of metasurfaces provides a new idea of “structure instead of material,” through the local enhancement of the optical field and resonance modulation, which can break through the limitations of the material’s intrinsic nonlinear effects, to realize the significant improvement of performance parameters in the sub-ps time domain. This review discusses the design principles, fabrication, and numerical simulation methods of metasurfaces, as well as their modulation characteristics of light in space and time domains. In the applications, the contribution of metasurfaces to optical modulation and imaging in the space domain is summarized, with a focus on their phase and polarization manipulation capabilities. Particularly, we are attentive to the application of metasurfaces in the time domain, probing into the relationship between metasurface structure and nonlinear optical properties, as well as the generation of pulsed lasers via mode-locked and Q-switched techniques. Finally, the developments and challenges of metasurfaces are summarized with an outlook provided to give a comprehensive understanding of metasurfaces and to facilitate their practical applications.