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Ordered mechanical systems typically have one or only a few stable rest configurations, and hence are not considered useful for encoding memory. Multistable and history-dependent responses usually emerge from quenched disorder, for example…

The concept of cloaking -- hiding objects from external detection -- has seen wide success in linear systems. Yet, translating these advancements to nonlinear mechanical systems remains an open challenge. Here, we present a new approach to…

Flexible mechanical structures can undergo large deformations under small loads, enabling large, complex, and nonlinear wave responses under finite-frequency driving. Here, we study a dynamically driven canonical flexible mechanical…

We experimentally and numerically study the precise role of geometry for the mechanics of biholar metamaterials, quasi-2D slabs of rubber patterned by circular holes of two alternating sizes. We recently showed how the response to uniaxial…

We develop a framework to understand the mechanics of metamaterial sheets on curved surfaces. Here we have constructed a continuum elastic theory of mechanical metamaterials by introducing an auxiliary, scalar gauge-like field that absorbs…

We present a monolithic mechanical metamaterial comprising a periodic arrangement of snapping units with tunable tensile behavior. Under tension, the metamaterial undergoes a large extension caused by sequential snap-through instabilities,…

Mechanical deformation of amorphous solids can be described as consisting of an elastic part in which the stress increases linearly with strain, up to a yield point at which the solid either fractures or starts deforming plastically. It is…

Reciprocity is a fundamental principle governing various physical systems, which ensures that the transfer function between any two points in space is identical, regardless of geometrical or material asymmetries. Breaking this transmission…

The ideal shock absorber combines high stiffness with high energy absorption whilst retaining structural integrity after impact and is scalable for industrial production. So far no structure meets all of these criteria. Here, we introduce a…

While the design of always new metamaterials with exotic static and dynamic properties is attracting deep attention in the last decades, little effort is made to explore their interactions with other materials. This prevents the conception…

Metamaterials are artificially created media, which allow introducing additional degrees of freedom into electromagnetic design by controlling constitutive material parameters. Reconfigurable time-dependent metamaterials can further enlarge…

Tunable metasurfaces enable active and on-demand control over optical wavefronts through reconfigurable scattering of resonant nanostructures. Here, we present novel insights inspired by mechanical metamaterials to achieve giant tunability…

This paper addresses testing of compressed structures, such as shells, that exhibit catastrophic buckling and notorious imperfection sensitivity. The central concept is the probing of a loaded structural specimen by a controlled lateral…

Precise control of the polarization and propagation direction of elastic waves is a fundamental challenge in elastodynamics. Achieving efficient mode conversion along arbitrary paths with conventional techniques has proven difficult. In…

Metamaterials based on mechanical elements have been developed over the past decade as a powerful platform for exploring analogs of electron transport in exotic regimes that are hard to produce in real materials. In addition to enabling new…

Photomechanically active materials undergo reversible deformation on illumination, making them ideal for remote, tether-free actuation. Much of the work on these materials has focused on one-dimensional structures, such as strips. In this…

The buckling behavior of cylindrical shells has gained significant interest over the past century due to its rich nonlinear behavior and broad engineering applications. While the buckling of cylindrical shells under a single load (e.g.,…

Active metamaterials are a type of metamaterial with tunable properties enabled by structural reconfigurations. Existing active metamaterials often achieve only a limited number of structural reconfigurations upon the application of an…

There has been significant recent interest in the mechanics community to design structures that can either violate reciprocity, or exhibit elastic asymmetry or odd elasticity. While these properties are highly desirable to enable mechanical…

Despite being governed by the familiar laws of Hookean mechanics, elastic shells patterned with an internal structure (i.e. metashells) exhibit a wealth of unusual mechanical properties with no counterparts in unstructured materials. Here I…