Twists and turns for metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel metamaterial design leveraging internal rotation to achieve strong nonlinear electromagnetic-elastic coupling, enabling phenomena like self-tuning and bistability, with experimental validation.

Contribution

It presents a new metamaterial concept utilizing internal rotation for enhanced nonlinear coupling, with independent control of electromagnetic and elastic properties.

Findings

Demonstrated nonlinear phenomena such as self-tuning and bistability.

Experimental verification of predicted effects.

High sensitivity of meta-atoms to electromagnetic wave power.

Abstract

We propose and verify experimentally a new concept for achieving strong nonlinear coupling between the electromagnetic and elastic properties in metamaterials. This coupling is provided through a novel degree of freedom in metamaterial design: internal rotation within structural elements. Our meta-atoms have high sensitivity to electromagnetic wave power, and the elastic and electromagnetic properties can be independently designed to optimise the response. We demonstrate a rich range of nonlinear phenomena including self-tuning and bistability, and provide a comprehensive experimental demonstration of the predicted effects.