Tunable GaAs metasurfaces for ultrafast image processing

Abstract The design and construction of optical semiconductor metasurfaces for various applications have become an important topic in the last decade. However, most metasurfaces are static; they are optimized for only one exact purpose and typically realize only one operation. In this work, we discuss the basic methods for creating dynamic metasurfaces giving special attention to ultrafast optical switching and provide numerical modeling of metasurfaces made of GaAs material realizing different amplitude-phase profiles under asymmetrical optical pumping. The metasurfaces are composed of semiconductor discs immersed in a fused silica medium. We demonstrate that based on Fourier transform and spatial filtering methods, these structures can be used for image processing and optical computing. Ultrafast switching is achieved by using an optical pump-probe scheme. The characteristic relaxation times between the pumped state and the relaxed state are on the order of several picoseconds.