Morphing metamaterial has tunable shape-changing properties

Metamaterials have been investigated for some years, most notably for their ability to manipulate light and sound waves in unusual ways, to make “invisibility cloaks” and tailored acoustic environments. The Caltech team has found a way to harness some of the properties of these bizarre crystalline structures in novel ways, which may have applications in energy storage and implantable devices.

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Some metamaterials are reconfigurable: that is, their structure allows them to change shape. However, most of these are only able to toggle between two distinct states, like a switch turning on and off. Materials scientist Prof Julia Greer of Caltech, working in collaboration with mechanical and process engineer Dennis Kochmann of ETH Zürich and Arman Afshar, an engineer from Georgia Tech, created a material using silicon and lithium chemistry that can adopt “in-between” states along a continuum. The shape change is triggered by an electrical current, and removing the current freezes the shape.