Bistable and Self-Tunable Negative-Index Metamaterial at Optical Frequencies

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.