A metamaterial is a category of artificially structured material that is engineered to achieve properties that cannot be found in nature. Examples include mechanical metamaterials, which can exhibit a negative Poisson’s ratio — meaning that they can shrink in the direction perpendicular to a compression loading — and optical metamaterials, which can be designed to have a negative refractive index — meaning that they refract light in the direction opposite to their normal positive refractive properties. Such unique features, which are derived from specially engineered micro- or nano-scale structures, hold great potential for emerging applications across different domains, such as unconventional computing technologies, advanced imaging systems, and soft robotics.
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