No Arabic abstract
Well-established textbook arguments suggest that static electric susceptibility must be positive in all bodies [1]. However, it has been pointed out that media that are not in thermodynamic equilibrium are not necessarily subject to this restriction; negative static electric susceptibility has been predicted theoretically in systems with inverted populations of atomic and molecular energy levels [2,3], though this has never been confirmed experimentally. Here we exploit the design freedom afforded by metamaterials to fabricate active structures that exhibit the first experimental evidence of negative static electric susceptibility. Unlike the systems envisioned previously---which were expected to require reduced temperature and pressure---negative values are readily achieved at room temperature and pressure. Further, values are readily tuneable throughout the negative range of stability -1<chi^{(0)}<0, resulting in magnitudes that are over one thousand times greater than predicted previously [4]. This opens the door to new technological capabilities such as stable electrostatic levitation.
Active matter is ubiquitous in biology and becomes increasingly more important in materials science. While numerous active systems have been investigated in detail both experimentally and theoretically, general design principles for functional active materials are still lacking. Building on a recently developed linear response optimization (LRO) framework, we here demonstrate that the spectra of nonlinear active mechanical and electric circuits can be designed similarly to those of linear passive networks.
Double-negative acoustic metamaterials (AMMs) offer the promising ability of superlensing for applications in ultrasonography, biomedical sensing and nondestructive evaluation. Here, under the simultaneous increasing or non-increasing mechanisms, we develop a unified topology optimization framework considering the different microstructure symmetries, minimal structural feature sizes and dispersion extents of effective parameters. Then we apply the optimization framework to furnish the heuristic resonance-cavity-based and space-coiling metamaterials with broadband double negativity. Meanwhile, we demonstrate the essences of double negativity derived from the novel artificial multipolar LC and Mie resonances which can be induced by controlling mechanisms in optimization. Furthermore, abundant numerical simulations validate the double negativity, negative refraction, enhancements of evanescent waves and subwavelengh imaging for the optimized AMMs. Finally, we experimentally show the desired broadband subwavelengh imaging using the 3D-printed optimized space-coiling metamaterial. The present methodology and broadband metamaterials provide the ideal strategy of constructing AMMs for subwavelengh imaging technology.
We experimentally constructed a three-dimensional flute-model molecular structure acoustic metamaterial(AM)from a periodic array of perforated hollow steel tubes (PHSTs) and investigated its transmission and reflection behaviors in impedance tube system. The AM exhibited a transmission peak and an inverse phase, thus exhibiting the local resonance of the PHSTs. Based on the homogeneous media theory, the effective bulk modulus and mass density of the AM were calculated to be simultaneously negative; the refractive index was also negative. PHST AM slab focusing experiments showed that the medium with a resonant structure exhibited a distinct metamaterial property.
Acoustic negative-index metamaterials show promise in achieving superlensing for diagnostic medical imaging. In spite of the recent progress made in this field, most metamaterials suffer from deficiencies such as low spatial symmetry, sophisticated labyrinth topologies and narrow-band features, which make them difficult to be utilized for symmetric subwavelength imaging applications. Here, we propose a category of robust multi-cavity metamaterials and reveal their common double-negative mechanism enabled by multi-polar (dipole, quadrupole and octupole) resonances in both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) scenarios. In particular, we discover explicit relationships governing the double-negative frequency bounds from equivalent circuit analogy. Moreover, broadband single-source and double-source subwavelength imaging is realized and verified by 2D and 3D superlens. More importantly, the analogical 3D superlens can ensure the subwavelength imaging in all directions. The proposed multi-polar resonance-enabled robust metamaterials and design methodology open horizons for easier manipulation of subwavelength waves and realization of practical 3D metamaterial devices.
Mechanical metamaterials are architected manmade materials that allow for unique behaviors not observed in nature, making them promising candidates for a wide range of applications. Existing metamaterials lack tunability as their properties can only be changed to a limited extent after the fabrication. In this paper, we present a new magneto-mechanical metamaterial that allows great tunability through a novel concept of deformation mode branching. The architecture of this new metamaterial employs an asymmetric joint design using hard-magnetic soft active materials that permits two distinct actuation modes (bending and folding) under opposite-direction magnetic fields. The subsequent application of mechanical forces leads to the deformation mode branching where the metamaterial architecture transforms into two distinctly different shapes, which exhibit very different deformations and enable great tunability in properties such as mechanical stiffness and acoustic bandgaps. Furthermore, this metamaterial design can be incorporated with magnetic shape memory polymers with global stiffness tunability, which further enables the global shift of the acoustic behaviors. The combination of magnetic and mechanical actuations, as well as shape memory effects, imbue unmatched tunable properties to a new paradigm of metamaterials.