Modern life is increasingly shaped by light. Optical devices exist in smartphone cameras, medical sensors, and emerging quantum technologies. As these technologies become more powerful, they are also expected to become smaller, lighter, and more energy efficient. One promising solution comes from metasurfaces—ultrathin layers patterned with nanoscale structures (“meta-atoms”) that offer unprecedented control over light within a flat, chip-compatible platform. When integrated with optoelectronic platforms, these metasurfaces give rise to so-called metadevices, offering new ways to control light on a chip. For many applications, trapping light so that it interacts more with active media is a key requirement, and this is where a photonic bound states in the continuum (BIC) enters the picture.
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