Polarization-Manipulating Metasurfaces: A Comprehensive Review on Design, Manufacturing, and Application

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Polarization manipulation represents a core research direction in optics and plays a crucial role in technologies such as imaging, communications, and quantum information processing. Conventional polarization devices face limitations such as bulky size, difficulties in integration, and slow response speeds, making it challenging to meet the increasing demands of modern optical systems for miniaturization and dynamic performance. As a class of two-dimensional artificial materials comprising subwavelength structures, metasurfaces enable multidimensional control over the polarization, phase, and amplitude of optical fields at the subwavelength scale through tailored design of the geometry, orientation, and arrangement of unit cells. These platforms offer notable advantages, including ultra-thin profiles, lightweight, ease of integration, and versatile functionality. This review systematically summarizes recent advances in polarization-manipulating metasurfaces. First, we introduce mathematical descriptions of polarization states and their synergy with metasurface design principles. We then highlight innovative applications of metasurfaces in areas such as polarization imaging and sensing, optical communications and information processing, polarization-based optical computing, and quantum optics. Furthermore, we provide a detailed analysis of key fabrication techniques, including electron beam lithography, ion beam etching, laser micro-processing and nano-processing, and nanoimprint lithography, discussing their underlying mechanisms, advantages, and current challenges. Finally, we discuss future development trends in dynamic polarization control, large scale manufacturing, and intelligent design of metasurfaces, offering theoretical insights and technical references for their application in next-generation integrated photonic devices.