title: Bistable and self-tunable negative-index metamaterial at optical frequencies.
abstract: We introduce a metamaterial design composed of square plasmonic loops loaded by Kerr nonlinearities that combines enhanced nonlinear response with strong artificial magnetism, ensuring a negative refractive index with bistable and self-tunable response. We verify with full-wave simulations that positive-to-negative switching of refractive index may be obtained with moderate loss. The design of a finite-size metamaterial prism is also presented, supporting at the same frequency, and for the same light intensity, positive or inverted Snell refraction as a function of its previous excitation history.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. pychen@mail.utexas.edu
authors.forename: Pai-Yen
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Farhat
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alù