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External fields can decidedly alter the free energy landscape of soft materials and can be exploited as a powerful tool for the assembly of targeted nanostructures and colloidal materials. Here, we use computer simulations to demonstrate…

We propose a novel approach for efficient tuning of the transmission characteristics of metamaterials through a continuous adjustment of the lattice structure, and confirm it experimentally in the microwave range. The concept is rather…

The study of active matter has revealed novel non-equilibrium collective behaviors, illustrating their potential as a new materials platform. However, most works treat active matter as unregulated systems with uniform microscopic energy…

Shared Control methods often use impedance control to track target poses in a robotic manipulator. The guidance behavior of such controllers is shaped by the used stiffness gains, which can be varying over time to achieve an adaptive…

We describe a combined experimental and theoretical investigation of shape-morphing structures assembled by actuating composite (Janus) fibers, taking into account multiple relevant factors affecting shape transformations, such as strain…

We investigate actuation of woven fabrics including active Janus fibres with an imposed twist, which bend in variable directions upon phase transition between isotropic and nematic state. The essential feature of textiles incorporating a…

Aerospace structures often experience high strain rate events such as ballistic impact, crash, or crush. A material model has been developed that enhances the capability to simulate the dynamic response of composite materials under these…

Active nematics are microscopically driven liquid crystals that exhibit dynamical steady states characterized by the creation and annihilation of topological defects. Motivated by experimental realizations of such systems made of biopolymer…

Architected materials can achieve enhanced properties compared to their plain counterparts. Specific architecting serves as a powerful design lever to achieve targeted behavior without changing the base material. Thus, the connection…

A large family of periodic planar non-linear bimode metamaterials are constructed from rigid bars and pivots. They are affine materials in the sense that their macroscopic deformations are only affine deformations: at large distances any…

We demonstrate how shape-induced strain can be used to control antiferromagnetic order in NiO/Pt thin films. For rectangular elements patterned along the easy and hard magnetocrystalline anisotropy axes of our film, we observe different…

Mechanical metamaterials are those structures designed to convey force and motion in novel and desirable ways. Recently, Kane and Lubensky showed that lattices at the point of marginal mechanical stability (Maxwell lattices) possess a…

Mechanical densification of granular bodies is a process in which a loose material becomes increasingly cohesive as the applied pressure increases. A constitutive description of this process faces the formidable problem that granular and…

Engineering synthetic materials that mimic the remarkable complexity of living organisms is a fundamental challenge in science and technology. We study the spatiotemporal patterns that emerge when an active nematicfilm of microtubules and…

Material nonlinearities such as hyperelasticity, viscoelasticity, and plasticity have recently emerged as design paradigms for metamaterials based on buckling. These metamaterials exhibit properties such as shape morphing, transition waves,…

Nematic elastomers and glasses are solids that display spontaneous distortion under external stimuli. Recent advances in the synthesis of sheets with controlled heterogeneities have enabled their actuation into non-trivial shapes with…

When tensioned, ordinary materials expand along the direction of the applied force. Here, we explore network concepts to design metamaterials exhibiting negative compressibility transitions, during which a material undergoes contraction…

We examine the dynamics of a compressible active nematic liquid crystal on a frictional substrate. When frictional damping dominates over viscous dissipation, we eliminate flow in favor of active stresses to obtain a minimal dynamical model…

Mechanical metamaterials have continued to offer unprecedented tunability in mechanical properties, but most designs to date have prioritized attaining high stiffness and strength while sacrificing deformability. The emergence of woven…

Quantifying the relationship between geometric descriptors of microstructure and effective properties like permeability is essential for understanding and improving the behavior of porous materials. In this paper, we employ a previously…