Chalcogenide phase change semiconductors have played a crucial role in the evolution of photonic technologies. From their decades-long utilization at the core of optical disks to their emergence as a highly promising reconfigurable component for a variety of nanophotonic modulation, switching and sensing platforms, the field of optics has continuously recognized their potential and sought to engineer their properties through a variety of material, device and fabrication level schemes. Most recently, the integration of phase change semiconductors within various photonic metamaterials, metadevices and metasystems has ignited research interest worldwide. This has facilitated the development of a wealth of highly promising application-driven nanophotonic device platforms that address growing societal demands requiring higher data storage capacity, faster and more efficient telecommunication, as well as adaptive sensing and imaging with reduced size, weight and power requirements. Here, we present a comprehensive review on the evolution of reconfigurable phase change chalcogenide metamaterials that focuses not just on a device level perspective but also examines the underlying material and fabrication considerations that are critical to obtaining optimal performance in these groundbreaking devices.

硫属化物相变半导体在光子技术的发展中发挥了至关重要的作用。从它们在光盘核心长达数十年的使用，到它们作为用于各种纳米光子调制、开关和传感平台的极具前景的可重构组件的出现，光学领域不断认识到它们的潜力，并试图通过各种材料、器件和制造水平方案。最近，相变半导体在各种光子超材料、超器件和超系统中的集成引起了全世界的研究兴趣。这促进了大量极具前景的应用驱动纳米光子器件平台的开发，以满足日益增长的需要更高数据存储容量的社会需求，更快、更高效的电信，以及尺寸、重量和功率要求更小的自适应传感和成像。在这里，我们对可重构相变硫属化物超材料的演变进行了全面回顾，不仅侧重于器件级别的观点，而且还研究了对在这些开创性器件中获得最佳性能至关重要的基础材料和制造考虑因素。