Metamaterials: Twisted Rods Store Large Amounts of Energy

New mechanical metamaterials developed at KIT exhibit high stiffness and high elastic energy density

31-Mar-2025 - An international team of researchers coordinated at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has developed mechanical metamaterials with a high elastic energy density. Thanks to highly twisted rods that deform in a spiral, they exhibit high rigidity and can absorb and release large amounts of ...

Material with innovative stretch properties developed

KIT researchers produce metamaterial that stretches and compresses differently than conventional materials

29-Oct-2024 - Metamaterials are artificially developed materials that do not occur in nature. Their building blocks function like atoms in conventional materials, but have special optical, electrical or magnetic properties. The interaction between the building blocks is crucial to their function: Until now, ...

New topological metamaterial amplifies sound waves exponentially

02-Apr-2024 - Researchers at AMOLF, in collaboration with partners from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, have realized a new type of metamaterial through which sound waves flow in an unprecedented fashion. It provides a novel form of amplification of mechanical vibrations, which has the potential to improve ...

Sound-powered sensors stand to save millions of batteries

The sensor is a metamaterial that acquires its special properties through the structuring of the material

31-Jan-2024 - Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a sensor that utilises energy from sound waves to control electronic devices. This could one day save millions of batteries. Sensors that monitor infrastructure, such as bridges or buildings, or are used in medical devices, such as prostheses for the deaf, ...

Unveiling molecular origami: A breakthrough in dynamic materials

20-Dec-2023 - Origami, traditionally associated with paper folding, has transcended its craft origins to influence a diverse range of fields, including art, science, engineering, and architecture. Recently, origami principles have extended to technology, with applications spanning solar cells to biomedical ...

Researchers are improving technology to generate high harmonics in nanostructured metasurfaces

22-May-2023 - Natural and artificial crystals can change the spectral colour of light – known as the nonlinear optical effect. Colour conversion is used for numerous applications, including nonlinear microscopy for biological structures and material examinations, LED light sources and lasers, in optical ...

Changing shapes at the push of a button

A single piece of material can take the place of entire systems of sensors, regulators and actuators

04-Jan-2023 - Programmable materials are true shapeshifters. They can change their characteristics in a controlled and reversible way with the push of a button, independently adapting to fit new conditions. They can be used, for example, to make comfy chairs or mattresses that prevent bedsores. To produce ...

Floppy or not: AI predicts properties of complex metamaterials

Even when given only a relatively small set of examples to learn from

09-Nov-2022 - Given a 3D piece of origami, can you flatten it without damaging it? Just by looking at the design, the answer is hard to predict, because each and every fold in the design has to be compatible with flattening. This is an example of a combinatorial problem. New research led by the UvA Institute ...

Chiral sources for metamaterial interface waveguides

A broadband near-field chiral source in the microwave band enables comparison of different edge states to advance applications in integrated photonics and wireless devices

25-Jul-2022 - Metamaterial interface waveguides can confine and guide electromagnetic (EM) waves, which has attractive potential in integrated photonics physics and wireless devices, from radio frequencies to optical bands. The energy flow in waveguides can be fully controlled by sorting the near-field light ...

Creating invisibility with superconducting materials

Invisibility devices may soon no longer be the stuff of science fiction

23-Dec-2021 - A new study published in the De Gruyter journal Nanophotonics by lead authors Huanyang Chen at Xiamen University, China, and Qiaoliang Bao, suggests the use of the material Molybdenum Trioxide (α-MoO3) to replace expensive and difficult to produce metamaterials in the emerging technology of novel ...