With the advancement of radio technology, there is a growing demand for high-precision electromagnetic wavefront manipulation. Vortex electromagnetic wave technology and its applications have emerged as an international academic frontier and a research hotspot. With its unique ability to manipulate the electromagnetic waves and characteristics of orbital angular momentum (OAM), vortex wave metasurface provides a new degree of freedom for precison modulation and application of electromagnetic waves. This paper first reviewed the fundamental theory of the vortex wave, including its generating principles and the characteristics of orbital angular momentum which it has carried. Then it introduced the two primary categories of vortex wave metasurfaces: reflective and transmissive metasurfaces. Subsequently, it summarized the measurement technology for vortex waves, providing a scientific and effective approach to evaluate the performance of vortex wave metasurfaces. The paper also discussed the applications of vortex wave metasurfaces in the fields, including to improve the cyberspace security and the data transmission capacity for the wireless communication systems, the target detection capabilities of radar systems, and the imaging quality of holographic imaging technology. Finally, it outlines future development directions for vortex wave metasurfaces, including research of high-order multi-mode OAM waves, solution of the beam divergence in long-distance transmission, design of reconfigurable vortex wave metasurfaces, development of OAM covert signal transmission and multi-channel multiplexing technology, to strengthen the security of cyber space and provide more efficient and flexible technical solutions in the fields of wireless communications, radar detection, optical imaging, and etc.

vortex wave  /  metasurface  /  orbital angular momentum