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Hybrid elastic solids

Nature Materials volume 10, pages 620–624 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Metamaterials can exhibit electromagnetic and elastic characteristics beyond those found in nature. In this work, we present a design of elastic metamaterial that exhibits multiple resonances in its building blocks. Band structure calculations show two negative dispersion bands, of which one supports only compressional waves and thereby blurs the distinction between a fluid and a solid over a finite frequency regime, whereas the other displays ‘super anisotropy’ in which compressional waves and shear waves can propagate only along different directions. Such unusual characteristics, well explained by the effective medium theory, have no comparable analogue in conventional solids and may lead to novel applications.

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Figure 1: Physical model and a practical design.
Figure 2: Band structure and effective medium parameters.
Figure 3: Field distributions of some specific eigenstates.
Figure 4: Transmission through a finite sample.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Z. Hang and I. Tsukerman for useful discussions. This work was supported by Hong Kong RGC Grant No. 605008 and RGC Grant HKUST604207.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Yun Lai, Ying Wu, Ping Sheng & Zhao-Qing Zhang

  2. Department of Physics, Soochow University, 1 Shizi Street, Suzhou 215006, China

    Yun Lai

  3. Division of Mathematical and Computer Sciences and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Ying Wu

Authors
  1. Yun Lai
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  2. Ying Wu
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  4. Zhao-Qing Zhang
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Contributions

Y.L. and Y.W. carried out the research and contributed equally. P.S. and Z-Q.Z. supervised the research and contributed to its design. All the authors discussed the results extensively.

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Correspondence to Zhao-Qing Zhang.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Lai, Y., Wu, Y., Sheng, P. et al. Hybrid elastic solids. Nature Mater 10, 620–624 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3043

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