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Nature provides examples of self-assemble lightweight disordered network structures with remarkable mechanical properties which are desirable for many applications purposes but challenging to reproduce artificially. Previous experimental…
While isotropic in-plane swelling problems for thin elastic sheets have been studied extensively in recent years, many shape-programmable materials, including nematic solids and 3D-printed structures, are anisotropic, as are most industrial…
Materials designed by nature commonly exhibit functional grading and laminated structures, particularly when intended for enhanced impact protection. Synthetic materials have also found success in exploiting this concept with fully dense…
Anisotropic homogeneous metamaterials that are neither wholly dissipative nor wholly active at a specific frequency are permitted by classical electromagnetic theory. Well-established homogenization formalisms indicate that such a…
The complexity of condensed matter arises from emergent behaviors that cannot be understood by analyzing individual constituents in isolation. While traditional condensed-matter approaches-developed primarily for ideal crystalline…
We present the general theory of Ising transitions in isotropic elastic media with vanishing thermal expansion. By constructing a minimal model with appropriate spin-lattice couplings, we show that in two dimensions near a continuous…
The inclusion of rigid elements into elastic composites may lead to superior mechanical properties for the equivalent elastic continuum, such as, for instance, extreme auxeticity. To allow full exploitation of these properties, a tool for…
We investigate the emergence of isotropic linear elasticity in amorphous and polycrystalline solids, via extensive numerical simulations. We show that the elastic properties are correlated over a finite length scale $\xi_E$, so that the…
Periodic structures can be engineered to exhibit unique properties observed at symmetry points, such as zero group velocity, Dirac cones and saddle points; identifying these, and the nature of the associated modes, from a direct reading of…
Structural cellular materials in nature, such as wood, trabecular bone, corals, and dentin combine complex biological functions with structural roles, such as skeletal support and impact protection1,2. They feature complex structural…
Discovering the physical requirements for meeting the indefinite permittivity in natural material as well as proposing a new natural hyperbolic media offer a possible route to significantly improve our knowledge and ability to confine and…
Auxetic materials are of great engineering interest not only because of their fascinating negative Poisson's ratio, but also due to their increased toughness and indentation resistance. These materials are typically synthesized polyester…
We analyze the occurrence of in-plane anisotropy in the electronic, magnetic, elastic and transport properties of more than one thousand 2D materials from the C2DB database. We identify hundreds of anisotropic materials and classify them…
For their excellent stiffness-to-weight characteristics, triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS) are widely adopted in architected materials. However, their geometric regularity often leads to elastic anisotropy, limiting their…
In many scenarios -- when we bite food or during a crash -- fracture is inevitable. Finding solutions to steer fracture to mitigate its impact or turn it into a purposeful functionality, is therefore crucial. Strategies using composites,…
Many geologic materials have a composite structure, in which macroscopic mechanical behavior is determined by the properties, shape, and heterogeneous distribution of individual constituents. In particular, sedimentary rocks commonly…
Materials with extreme mechanical anisotropy are designed to work near a material instability threshold where they display stress channelling and strain localization, effects that can be exploited in several technologies. Extreme couple…
We describe how to engineer wavefunction delocalization in disordered systems modelled by tight-binding Hamiltonians in d>1 dimensions. We show analytically that a simple product structure for the random onsite potential energies, together…
Evolution in time-varying environments naturally leads to adaptable biological systems that can easily switch functionalities. Advances in the synthesis of environmentally-responsive materials therefore open up the possibility of creating a…
Architected metamaterials like foams and lattices exhibit complex responses governed by microstructural instabilities, localization, and phase-transition-like phenomena. Their behavior is further affected by heterogeneities inherent in…