  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.
