Bound states in the continuum in multilayered time-varying metasurfaces

Abstract

Time-varying metamaterials involve a rapid temporal modulation of the permittivity, often at frequencies comparable to the oscillation frequency of light. However, pronounced physical effects at low modulation amplitudes are observed only when resonances sustained in the metamaterials are utilized. This requires an additional spatial structuring. Here, we demonstrate the first exploitation of bound states in the continuum (BICs) in such spatio-temporal metamaterials consisting of a multilayered metasurface. Leveraging Fabry-Perot BICs in a metasurface-based cavity, we realize polarization-insensitive scattering anomalies such as exceptional points (EPs), coherent perfect absorption (CPA), and lasing at extremely small modulation amplitudes. In a second example, by utilizing symmetry-protected BICs and breaking time-reversal symmetry of a multilayered metasurface, we obtain strong nonreciprocal behavior. Harnessing nonreciprocity, we further demonstrate a device capable of one-way monochromatic light transmission at perturbative modulation amplitudes. Our contribution establishes BIC-enabled spatio-temporal metamaterials as a scalable platform for low-power, tunable light-matter interactions, opening new pathways toward practical nonreciprocal photonic devices, dynamic wave control, and on-chip optical signal processing.