title: Metamaterials with conformational nonlinearity.
abstract: Within a decade of fruitful development, metamaterials became a prominent area of research, bridging theoretical and applied electrodynamics, electrical engineering and material science. Being man-made structures, metamaterials offer a particularly useful playground to develop interdisciplinary concepts. Here we demonstrate a novel principle in metamaterial assembly which integrates electromagnetic, mechanical, and thermal responses within their elements. Through these mechanisms, the conformation of the meta-molecules changes, providing a dual mechanism for nonlinearity and offering nonlinear chirality. Our proposal opens a wide road towards further developments of nonlinear metamaterials and photonic structures, adding extra flexibility to their design and control.
authors.affiliation: Nonlinear Physics Center, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia; National Research University for Information Technology, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO), Saint Petersburg 197101, Russia. mikhail.lapine@gmail.com
authors.forename: Mikhail
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lapine
authors.forename: Ilya V
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Shadrivov
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Powell
authors.forename: Yuri S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Kivshar