New Metamaterial Allows Scientists to 'Bend' Elastic Waves

Sounds waves passing through the air, objects that cause ripples in the water, and shockwaves from earthquakes are all considered "elastic waves." They travel at the surface or through a material without causing any permanent changes to the material's makeup. Now, though, scientists have developed a material that has the ability to control these waves.

In the past, scientists have used a combination of materials, such as metal and rubber, to "bend" and control waves. In this case, though, the scientists designed a material using just steel. The engineered material possessed the ability to control the increase of acoustical or electric waves.

"Methods of controlling and manipulating subwavelength acoustic and elastic waves have proven elusive and difficult; however, the potential applications-once the methods are refined-are tremendous," said Guoliang Huang, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Our team has developed a material that, if used in the manufacture of new devices, could have the ability to sense sound and elastic waves. By manipulating these waves to our advantage, we would have the ability to create materials that could great benefit society-from imaging to military enhancements such as elastic cloaking-the possibilities are endless."

The material itself is a massive material in its current state. This means that researchers need to introduce other elements that will help them control the elastic waves sent through it.

"We're going to make this material much more active by integrating smart materials like microchips that are controllable," said Huang. "This will give us the ability to effectively 'tune in' to any elastic sound or elastic wave frequency and generate the responses we'd like; this manipulation gives us the means to control how it reactions to what's surrounding it."

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

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