Simultaneous Reflection and Transmission in Metasurfaces: A Comprehensive Review

The ability of metasurfaces to manipulate electromagnetic waves has drawn much attention especially with its ability to implement multifunctional structures such as simultaneous reflection and transmission. This paper discusses the fundamental principles and key design metrics such as bandwidth performance, efficiency, polarization control, frequency, and angular stability, which describe performance capabilities and limitations of metasurfaces. A wide operational bandwidth is indeed a requisite for multiple applications; while efficiency allows for energy efficient operations and optimal throughput. Additionally, polarization control and angular stability improves the performance of the metasurface, especially for dynamic environments and next generation communication systems. However, these metasurfaces have some design limitations; for example, trade-off between bandwidth and angular stability, and independent control of reflected and transmitted waves. This paper outlines these challenges and offers avenues for further innovation toward fully realizing the potential of metasurfaces in next-generation technologies.