Auxetic behaviour in crystals of hard polyhedra

Auxetic materials - systems that, when subjected to a compression in one direction, also compress in one or more perpendicular directions - have intrigued researchers for decades due to their counterintuitive mechanical properties. Their unique behaviour gives auxetic materials potential for a wide range of applications such as shock absorbers, and electrodes in piezoelectric sensors. Most known auxetic materials are realized by connecting rigid, anisotropic units in a hinging manner, which are systems that often are hard to realize experimentally on the microscopic scale. Here, we explore the elastic behaviour of six crystals composed of discrete space-filling hard polygons or polyhedra. We show that some of these systems show partial auxetic behaviour, emerging from the interplay of entropy and geometry alone. To demonstrate the feasibility and robustness of this phenomenon, we create two experimental realizations of square-shaped particles, spanning both colloidal particles driven by Brownian motion and granular particles driven by external vibrations, and confirm the emergence of auxeticity in both cases.