Retrieval of all effective susceptibilities in nonlinear metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper presents a generalized nonlinear transfer matrix method to accurately retrieve all effective nonlinear susceptibilities in anisotropic metamaterials, enhancing control over their nonlinear electromagnetic responses.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive nonlinear retrieval approach that accounts for all susceptibility terms, extending beyond existing methods.

Findings

Successfully retrieves all nonlinear susceptibilities in metamaterials.

Demonstrates the method using sum frequency generation.

Applicable to various second and higher order nonlinear processes.

Abstract

Electromagnetic metamaterials offer a great avenue to engineer and amplify the nonlinear response of materials. Their electric, magnetic, and magneto-electric linear and nonlinear response are related to their structure, providing unprecedented liberty to control those properties. Both the linear and the nonlinear properties of metamaterials are typically anisotropic. While the methods to retrieve the effective linear properties are well established, existing nonlinear retrieval methods have serious limitations. In the present work, we generalize a nonlinear transfer matrix approach to account for all nonlinear susceptibility terms and show how to use this approach to retrieve all effective nonlinear susceptibilities of metamaterial elements. The approach is demonstrated using sum frequency generation, but can be applied to other second order or higher order processes.