2023/04/09 by Hicham Mangach, Younes Achaoui, Mangach, Hicham +9
Chemistry · Engineering · #Advanced Antenna and Metasurface Technologies #Advanced Materials and Mechanics #Chemistry #Chirality (physics) #Enantioselective synthesis #Engineering #Metamaterial #Optics #Physics #Planar chirality #Polarization (electrochemistry) #Quantum mechanics #Structural Analysis and Optimization #Topology (electrical circuits)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2304.08169
openalex publication_date 2023/04/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The recent emergence of chirality in mechanical metamaterials has revolutionized the field, enabling achievements in wave propagation and polarization control. Despite being an intrinsic feature of some molecules and ubiquitous in our surroundings, the incorporation of chirality into mechanical systems has only gained widespread recognition in the last few years. The extra degrees of freedom induced by chirality has propelled the study of systems to new heights, leading to a better understanding of the physical laws governing these systems. In this study, we present a structural design of a butterfly meta-structure that exploits the chiral effect to create a 3D chiral butterfly capable of inducing a rotation of 90° in the plane of polarization, enabling a switch between various polarization states within a solid material. Furthermore, our numerical investigation using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) has revealed an unexpected conversion of compressional movement to transverse movement within these structures, further highlighting the transformative potential of chirality in mechanical metamaterials. Thus, revealing an additional degree of freedom that can be manipulated, namely the polarization state.