Artificial Nonlinearity Generated from Electromagnetic Coupling Metamolecule.

A purely artificial mechanism for optical nonlinearity is proposed based on a metamaterial route. The mechanism is derived from classical electromagnetic interaction in a metamolecule consisting of a cut-wire meta-atom nested within a split-ring meta-atom. Induced by the localized magnetic field in the split-ring meta-atom, the magnetic force drives an anharmonic oscillation of free electrons in the cut-wire meta-atom, generating an intrinsically nonlinear electromagnetic response. An explicit physical process of a second-order nonlinear behavior is adequately described, which is perfectly demonstrated with a series of numerical simulations. Instead of "borrowing" from natural nonlinear materials, this novel mechanism of optical nonlinearity is artificially dominated by the metamolecule geometry and possesses unprecedented design freedom, offering fascinating possibilities to the research and application of nonlinear optics.