Programmable and robust static topological solitons in mechanical metamaterials

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Nonlinear Dynamics

Background:

• Solitons are persistent wave packets crucial for information and energy transfer.
• Controlling mechanical solitons, which propagate as single or uncorrelated entities, has been a significant challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a theoretical framework for programming static periodic topological solitons into metamaterials.
• To demonstrate the computational and experimental implementation of this framework in real metamaterials.

Main Methods:

• Developing a theoretical model for soliton programming.
• Computational simulations of metamaterial behavior under compression.
• Experimental validation using real metamaterials and quasi-static compression.

Main Results:

• Successfully programmed static periodic topological solitons within a metamaterial.
• Solitons arise from buckling-induced kink-antikink bands acting as domain barriers.
• Observed a novel size-dependence in soliton number and wavelength due to intrinsic length scales.
• Identified solitons originating from displacive phase transitions with topological excitations.

Conclusions:

• The study presents a viable method for controlling topological solitons in metamaterials.
• The findings offer pathways for robust regularization of stochastic responses in metamaterials.
• This work paves the way for advanced applications in information and energy transfer.