Realization of active metamaterials with odd micropolar elasticity

Yangyang Chen, Xiaopeng Li, Colin Scheibner, Vincenzo Vitelli () and Guoliang Huang ()
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Yangyang Chen: University of Missouri
Xiaopeng Li: University of Missouri
Colin Scheibner: The University of Chicago
Vincenzo Vitelli: The University of Chicago
Guoliang Huang: University of Missouri

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Materials made from active, living, or robotic components can display emergent properties arising from local sensing and computation. Here, we realize a freestanding active metabeam with piezoelectric elements and electronic feed-forward control that gives rise to an odd micropolar elasticity absent in energy-conserving media. The non-reciprocal odd modulus enables bending and shearing cycles that convert electrical energy into mechanical work, and vice versa. The sign of this elastic modulus is linked to a non-Hermitian topological index that determines the localization of vibrational modes to sample boundaries. At finite frequency, we can also tune the phase angle of the active modulus to produce a direction-dependent bending modulus and control non-Hermitian vibrational properties. Our continuum approach, built on symmetries and conservation laws, could be exploited to design others systems such as synthetic biofilaments and membranes with feed-forward control loops.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26034-z

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