All-optical active THz metasurfaces for ultrafast polarization switching and dynamic beam splitting

Miniaturized ultrafast switchable optical components with an extremely compact size and a high-speed response will be the core of next-generation all-optical devices instead of traditional integrated circuits, which are approaching the bottleneck of Moore’s Law. Metasurfaces have emerged as fascinating subwavelength flat optical components and devices for light focusing and holography applications. However, these devices exhibit a severe limitation due to their natural passive response. Here we introduce an active hybrid metasurface integrated with patterned semiconductor inclusions for all-optical active control of terahertz waves. Ultrafast modulation of polarization states and the beam splitting ratio are experimentally demonstrated on a time scale of 667 ps. This scheme of hybrid metasurfaces could also be extended to the design of various free-space all-optical active devices, such as varifocal planar lenses, switchable vector beam generators, and components for holography in ultrafast imaging, display, and high-fidelity terahertz wireless communication systems.