This research seeks to solve a fundamental challenge in powering active optical metamaterials, in particular the ability to couple actinic energy and direct mechanical adaptation at the nano-scale, meta-atom by meta-atom. The PIs will test that hypothesis that optimizing the topology of plasmonic structures which reside on photoactive, nanostructured polymers can allow coupling of photons from a pump beam into photochromic switches embedded in an ordered macromolecular network. When a resonant mode coincides with the absorption of the photoswitches, fully reversible changes in the macromolecular order can generate large strains (>10%) in the polymer. In turn, this actuation back-couples into a structural adaptation of the meta-atom resident on the polymer. The ability to utilize a pump to structurally modulate a metamaterial then becomes a vehicle to manipulate a probe beam of a different wavelength (with which the meta-atoms are multiresonant) with near-unity changes in the scattering amplitude and with phase control. Photo-adaptive metamaterials capable of device-level optical manipulation become possible. An array of outreach efforts is planned to magnify the broader impact of the work. Dissemination via publications will be augmented with a focus on open-source distribution of the simulation software and online tutorials on fabrication and processing.