Domain Evolution Kinietics with Vector Order Parameter in Multistable Metamaterial

Multistability characterizes a variety of physical systems across diverse disciplines from chemistry, to biology, to materials science, etc. Recently, metamaterials emerging from geometrically multistable architectures have attracted the interests of researchers for the elaborated mechanical and dynamic response. Within such systems, multiple opposing, energetically stable phases may exist simultaneously, separated by a domain walls. Under the appropriate conditions, domain walls move, a small-scale process whose influence, nonetheless, manifests at much larger scales. Ferroelectric switch and grain growth affecting piezoelectricity and strength of materials are two familiar examples from materials science. Previously, we simulated ferroelectric-like switching and solidification-like phase separation in a multistable metamaterial for which the theoretical descriptions required only a scale order parameter. In this talk, we present a metamaterial design whose theoretical description of the domain evolution kinetics demands a vector order parameter. This additional complexity realizes many atomic-scale features within a readily accessible, large-scale platform which is of interest to materials scientist and mechanical engineers alike.