Virtual design of 3D chiral metamaterials

A dream of materials science is to design and optimize materials and material properties on the computer, to thereby save resources that would otherwise be necessary for tedious trial-and-error procedures and excessive experimentation. However, the truth is that this dream has been realized in only few exceptions to date. Metamaterials are an entire class of such exceptions. They have been rationally designed from the birth of the field, aiming at properties that go qualitatively and quantitatively beyond those of ordinary materials.  This project aims at the computer-aided rational design of three-dimensional (3D) chiral metamaterials – a specific subclass of metamaterials for which major new fundamental and application opportunities are in sight. We have defined three interconnected subprojects: A) chiral and dual dielectric optical metamaterials, B) chiral metallic microwave metamaterials for nuclear magneto-electric resonance, and C) chiral micropolar mechanical metamaterials.

An early result from this project is the 3D chiral micropolar mechanical metamaterial shown in the figure (taken from: Three-dimensional mechanical metamaterials with a twist, T. Frenzel, M. Kadic, and M. Wegener, Science 358, 1072 (2017)).