Space-Time-Coding Digital Metasurfaces: Principles and Applications

Space-time-modulated metastructures characterized by spatiotemporally varying properties have recently attracted great interest and become one of the most fascinating and promising research fields. In the meantime, space-time-coding digital metasurfaces with inherently programmable natures emerge as powerful and versatile platforms for implementing the spatiotemporal modulations, which have been successfully realized and used to manipulate the electromagnetic waves in both the spectral and spatial domains. In this article, we systematically introduce the general concepts and working principles of space-time-coding digital metasurfaces and provide a comprehensive survey of recent advances and representative applications in this field. Specifically, we illustrate the examples of complicated wave manipulations, including harmonic beam control and programmable nonreciprocal effect. The fascinating strategy of space-time-coding opens the door to exciting scenarios for information systems, with abundant applications ranging from wireless communications to imaging and radars. We summarize this review by presenting the perspectives on the existing challenges and future directions in this fast-growing research field.

Full electric-field tuning of the nonreciprocal transport effect in massive chiral fermions with trigonal warping

In a noncentrosymmetric system, an intrinsic electric polarization is allowed and may lead to unusual nonreciprocal charge transport phenomena. As a result, a current-dependent resistance, arising from the magnetoelectric anisotropy term of k · E × B, appears and acts as a current rectifier with the amount of rectification being linearly proportional to the magnitude of both current and applied magnetic field. In this work, a different type of nonreciprocal transport effect was demonstrated in a graphene-based device, which requires no external magnetic field. Owing to the unique pseudospin (valley) degree of freedom in chiral fermions with trigonal warping, a large nonreciprocal transport effect was uncovered in a gapped bilayer graphene, where electric-field tunabilities of the band gap and valley polarization play an important role. The exact cancellation of nonreciprocal effect between two different valleys is effectively removed by breaking the inversion symmetry via electric gatings. The magnitude of the current rectification appears to be at a maximum when the Fermi surface undergoes a Lifshitz transition near the band edges, which is proportional to the current and the displacement field strength. The full electric-field tuning of the nonreciprocal transport effect without a magnetic field opens up a new direction for valleytronics in two-dimensional based devices.

Surface magneto plasmons and their applications in the infrared frequencies

Due to their promising properties, surface magneto plasmons have attracted great interests in the field of plasmonics recently. Apart from flexible modulation of the plasmonic properties by an external magnetic field, surface magneto plasmons also promise nonreciprocal effect and multi-bands of propagation, which can be applied into the design of integrated plasmonic devices for biosensing and telecommunication applications. In the visible frequencies, because it demands extremely strong magnetic fields for the manipulation of metallic plasmonic materials, nano-devices consisting of metals and magnetic materials based on surface magneto plasmon are difficult to be realized due to the challenges in device fabrication and high losses. In the infrared frequencies, highly-doped semiconductors can replace metals, owning to the lower incident wave frequencies and lower plasma frequencies. The required magnetic field is also low, which makes the tunable devices based on surface magneto plasmons more practically to be realized. Furthermore, a promising 2D material-graphene shows great potential in infrared magnetic plasmonics. In this paper, we review the magneto plasmonics in the infrared frequencies with a focus on device designs and applications. We investigate surface magneto plasmons propagating in different structures, including plane surface structures and slot waveguides. Based on the fundamental investigation and theoretical studies, we illustrate various magneto plasmonic micro/nano devices in the infrared, such as tunable waveguides, filters, and beam-splitters. Novel plasmonic devices such as one-way waveguides and broad-band waveguides are also introduced.