Metamaterials with conformational nonlinearity

Within a decade of fruitful developments, 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 novel 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.