Experimental observation of roton-like dispersion relations in metamaterials.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34851658.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.abm2189 and PMC identifier 8635434.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Previously, rotons were observed in correlated quantum systems at low temperatures, including superfluid helium and Bose-Einstein condensates. Here, following a recent theoretical proposal, we report the direct experimental observation of roton-like dispersion relations in two different three-dimensional metamaterials under ambient conditions. One experiment uses transverse elastic waves in microscale metamaterials at ultrasound frequencies. The other experiment uses longitudinal air-pressure waves in macroscopic channel–based metamaterials at audible frequencies. In both experiments, we identify the roton-like minimum in the dispersion relation that is associated to a triplet of waves at a given frequency. Our work shows that designed interactions in metamaterials beyond the nearest neighbors open unprecedented experimental opportunities to tailor the lowest dispersion branch—while most previous metamaterial studies have concentrated on shaping higher dispersion branches.