Ultra-soft 100 nm thick zero Poisson's ratio film with 60{\%} reversible compressibility

Squeezing films of most solids, liquids and granular materials causes dilation in the lateral dimension which is characterized by a positive Poisson's ratio. Auxetic materials, such as, special foams, crumpled graphite, zeolites, spectrin/actin membrane, and carbon nanotube laminates shrink, i.e., their Poisson's ratio is negative. As a result of Poisson's effect, the force to squeeze an amorphous material, such as a viscous thin film coating adhered to rigid surface increases by over million fold as the thickness decreases from 10 $\mu$m to 100 nm due to constrain on lateral deformations and off-plane relaxation. We demonstrate, ultra-soft, 100 nm films of polymer/nanoparticle composite adhered to 1.25 cm diameter glass that can be reversibly squeezed over 60{\%} strain between rigid plates requiring (very) low stresses below 100 KPa. Unlike non-zero Poisson's ratio materials, stiffness decreases with thickness, and the stress distribution is uniform over the film as mapped electro-optically. The high deformability at very low stresses is explained by considering reentrant cellular structure found in cork and the wings of beetles that have Poisson's ratio near zero.