Tunability strategies for elastic metamaterials: waveguiding, tonotopy and topological localization

In this talk, I will present recent work by our group documenting two different approaches to achieve dynamic tunability in elastic metamaterials, and some of the possible applications deriving from their augmented functionality. On the one hand, photoresponsive polymers can be used to reversibly locally modify material stiffness through the application of an external optical field, allowing to introduce structural organization in a previously homogeneous material, or to modify existing structural features. On the other, appropriately modulated residual strain fields can be introduced in structures able to undergo large deformations to modify their dispersion, and therefore their wave control functionality. I will show some examples of how these two approaches enable the modulation of wave properties such as transmission, tonotopy, and topological localization in different structures, and provide some insight into potential future developments.