High efficiency second and third harmonic generation from magnetic metamaterials by using a grating

Metamaterials can be used to generate harmonic signals in small thicknesses, but they suffer from low efficiency. Here, we introduce a new method for amplifying second and third harmonic generation from magnetic metamaterials. We show numerically that by using a grating structure under the metamaterial, the grating and the metamaterial form a resonator which leads to a higher absorption in the metamaterial. By this method we could increase the absorption of the structure in the magnetic resonance up to 25% of the initial value. This leads to the generation of second and third harmonic signals with a higher efficiency from this metamaterial-based nonlinear media. We confirmed this idea in the nanostrip metamaterials and saw the amplitude of the second harmonic generation was doubled and the amplitude of the third harmonic generation increased by a factor of 4 in comparison to the same structure without grating.