Observation of ferroelectric programmability in 3D printed metamaterials

Architected materials can break the limit of what is possible compared to natural materials, however, once

fabricated they retain fixed properties. A growing trend in research is devoted to materials with properties that

can be tuned post fabrication in a programmable manner. Such tunability can be achieved through magnetic,

electric, or thermal stimuli to responsive elements within the metamaterial’s architecture. In this paper, we

present the first demonstration of ferroelectric programmability of 3D printed polymeric metamaterials. We

harness electric poling effects to change the mechanical properties of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). We

utilize the poling-induced softening to reverse metamaterials behavior from attenuating waves to propagating

them and vice versa. We demonstrate the utility of the proposed platform to program a desired set of pixels

within the metamaterials to open a path for waves to propagate in a waveguide. Our findings introduce a

methodology for elastic wave guiding by electrical poling, which can open the door for numerous applications

in various fields such as vibration isolation, wave guiding, and energy harvesting.