,

I will review recent theoretical and experimental results on tunability of periodic photonic structures and metamaterials, in particular the results obtained at our Nonlinear Physics Center at the Australian National University in Canberra (http://wwwrsphysse.anu.edu.au/nonlinear/). In particular, I will discuss our recent advances in the control of light propagation in metamaterials and plasmonic structures. We suggest and demonstrate experimentally the functional metamaterials controlled with externally imposed patterns of light. We fabricate a light-tunable microwave metamaterial structure and prove its unique functionalities for reflection, shaping, and focusing of electromagnetic waves. For optical metamaterials, we demonstrate an efficient polarisation-dependent control of spontaneous emission of quantum dots through their coupling to magnetic metamaterials, and a sharp difference in the interaction of quantum dots with magnetic and electric resonances of the split-ring optical metamaterial.