ARTICLE

Received 20 Dec 2013 | Accepted 16 May 2014 | Published 19 Jun 2014 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5130

An elasto-mechanical unfeelability cloak made

of pentamode metamaterials
T. Bückmann1, M. Thiel2,3, M. Kadic1, R. Schittny1 & M. Wegener1,2,3

Metamaterial-based cloaks make objects different from their surrounding appear just like
their surrounding. To date, cloaking has been demonstrated experimentally in many fields
of research, including electrodynamics at microwave frequencies, optics, static electric
conduction, acoustics, fluid dynamics, thermodynamics and quasi two-dimensional solid
mechanics. However, cloaking in the seemingly simple case of three-dimensional solid
mechanics is more demanding. Here, inspired by invisible core-shell nanoparticles in optics,
we design an approximate elasto-mechanical core-shell ‘unfeelability’ cloak based on
pentamode metamaterials. The resulting three-dimensional polymer microstructures
with macroscopic overall volume are fabricated by rapid dip-in direct laser writing optical
lithography. We quasi-statically deform cloak and control samples in the linear regime and
map the displacement fields by autocorrelation-based analysis of recorded movies. The
measured and the calculated displacement fields show very good cloaking performance. This
means that one can elastically hide objects along these lines.

1 Institute
of Applied Physics and DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany.
2 Institute
of Nanotechnology (INT), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany. 3 Nanoscribe GmbH, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1,
76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to T.B. (email: Tiemo.Bueckmann@kit.edu).

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 5:4130 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5130 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications 1

& 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
ARTICLE NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5130

rtificial materials called metamaterials1,2 or composites3

A have significantly improved our ability to steer waves

and energy fluxes in electromagnetism, optics, acoustics,
thermodynamics and mechanics. Invisibility cloaks4–7 and
counterparts thereof are demonstrations of this progress. Cloaks
have been demonstrated experimentally in electromagnetism at
microwave8 and at optical frequencies9–11, in airborne12,13 and R2
fluid-borne acoustics14, for fluid surface waves15, for electrical16
and heat conduction17–19, as well as for flexural waves20 in thin R1
(quasi two-dimensional) elastic membranes. In three-dimensional y Ri
(3D) solid mechanics, only unidirectional cloaking of stress waves
in fibrous materials has been achieved21.
What makes cloaking in 3D solid mechanics harder than z x
cloaking in other systems? An isotropic dielectric optical material
can be described by a simple scalar electric permittivity, an
isotropic magnetic material by a scalar magnetic permeability, an
isotropic electric (or thermal) conductor by a scalar electric (or
heat) conductivity, an isotropic diffusive medium by a scalar
diffusivity and so on. In contrast, in mechanics, regular 3D elastic
solids can only be treated by a rank-4 elasticity tensor22. Even for
isotropic media, it contains two independent elements, namely
the material’s bulk modulus B and shear modulus G. Intuitively, d0
these moduli describe the forces needed to change the volume
and the shape of a linearly elastic material, respectively, while D
fixing the other. Mechanics becomes much simpler for the d2
acoustics of gases/fluids2,3, which are defined by strictly zero
shear modulus, that is, G ¼ 0. a
The theory underlying cloaking has either been based on
analytical coordinate transformations3–6 or on numerical
topology optimization13,23–25. The analytical theory for mere
invisibility and analogues thereof based on simple spherical or
cylindrical core-shell geometries has been worked out a long time
ago26–28. We use the core-shell approach below. Whatever the
approach, a cloak—as opposed to just a ‘neutral inclusion’ that is
not necessarily a cloak—makes an arbitrary object within the
cloak appear just like a given surrounding. To accomplish this
goal, the object needs to be isolated from the surrounding for all
conditions. In optics, isolation can be achieved by an opaque
metal wall, in electrical conduction by an electrically insulating
wall and in heat conduction by a thermally insulating wall. In
mechanics, one needs a rigid (that is, immovable) wall. Next, a
suitable structure is wrapped around these walls to make them
and their interior appear identical to the surrounding. A similar Figure 1 | Illustration of the elasto-mechanical cloak. (a) A rigid hollow
core-shell approach has just recently been successfully used cylinder embedded in a homogeneous three-dimensional pentamode-
in thermal cloaking18,19. In this paper, we experimentally metamaterial environment (white) is covered by a compliant pentamode-
demonstrate an approximate core-shell elasto-mechanical cloak. metamaterial shell (red). Any object can be placed inside of the hollow
interior and thereby becomes ‘unfeelable’. For any given pushing direction,
Results the cylindrical core-shell geometry exhibits a symmetry plane normal to the
Elasto-mechanical cloak design. What function does such an pushing direction and cutting through the middle of the cylinder. Thus, it is
‘unfeelability cloak’ serve? For example, lying on an elastic bed sufficient to study the half-cylinder geometry. (b) The magnified view
mattress, you would normally feel a stiff object underneath the reveals the details of the pentamode metamaterial the cloak is composed
mattress (also see illustration Supplementary Fig. 1). In contrast, a of. The local bulk modulus B is tuned via the diameter d of the double-cone
cloaking mattress on top of the same stiff object would appear to connections with respect to the fixed lattice constant a. For the
the outside as a homogeneous isotropic elastic solid. In this surrounding, we chose d0/a ¼ 5.3% (white), for the cloaking shell we derive
fashion, one can elastically hide objects. d2/a ¼ 2.4% (red) for the choice R2/R1 ¼ 4/3. The fixed diameter D/a ¼ 8%
Inspired by invisible core-shell geometries in optics29, we use at the thick ends is also depicted. (c) Optical micrograph of a fabricated
the mechanical core-shell approach illustrated in Fig. 1. Theory cloaking structure. Scale bar, 0.5 mm.
for elastic core-shell geometries was published by Kerner26 and
later by Hashin and Shtrikman28. The textbook of Milton3
comprehensively reviews the theoretical work published since above, this rigid wall already isolates and protects any object
then, much of which uses the notion of ‘neutral inclusions’. More inside with respect to the outside. By additionally wrapping
recently, a theoretical optimization study has been published30. In around the cylinder a homogeneous isotropic shell (with outer
Fig. 1, we aim at statically cloaking an arbitrary object located radius R2, bulk modulus B2 and shear modulus G2), we wish to
inside a rigid (that is, ideally incompressible and not deformable) make this core-shell geometry appear elastically as its isotropic
hollow cylinder with inner radius Ri, outer radius R1, bulk compliant homogeneous surrounding (with bulk modulus B0 and
modulus B1-N and shear modulus G1-N. As pointed out shear modulus G0).

2 NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 5:4130 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5130 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications

& 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5130 ARTICLE

To accomplish this goal, we need to make the core-shell appear modulus of the shell (upon using f1 ¼ 1  f2 ¼ ðR1 =R2 Þ2 in the
as the surrounding with respect to compression as well as with nomenclature of ref. 3)
respect to shear. It is the combination of these two aspects—  2
compression and shear—that makes cloaking in mechanics B2 R2
harder than cloaking in other areas of physics. In regard to ¼ 1 : ð1Þ
B0 R1
shear, Hashin and Shtrikman28 showed that this necessarily
requires G1 ¼ G0, from which the condition G2 ¼ G1 ¼ G0 Numerical continuum-mechanics calculations (not depicted)
follows28. Mathematically, this condition is immediately fulfilled indicate that this formula remains valid as long as the B2/G2 ratio
by any three liquids with zero shear moduli. The liquids would, is larger than some 100. For example, choosing a thin shell with
however, rapidly intermix and flow away. Hence, the cloak would R2/R1 ¼ 4/3, the formula leads to a relative bulk modulus of the
not be stable. A rigid isolating wall (with B1-N and G1-N) shell of B2/B0 ¼ 7/16E0.44.
requires a solid. This immediately leads to a surrounding with Intuitively, the operation with respect to compression can
G0-N, which is not deformable as well, and would hence not easily be understood by analogy to a one-dimensional periodic
represent an impressive demonstration of cloaking at all. chain of identical Hooke springs, each with finite spring constant
We conclude that the mechanical core-shell approach does not D0. One spring shall now be replaced by a very stiff one, that is,
allow for perfect elasto-mechanical cloaking using a rigid wall for D1-N. To compensate for that, the two neighbouring springs
isolation and a compliant solid as surrounding. Nevertheless, with spring constant D2 must be made softer. To become
cloaking24,31 may still be possible upon simply ignoring the undetectable with respect to compression, the effective spring
condition G2 ¼ G1 ¼ G0, in which case cloaking is no longer constant of the three springs must be identical to three identical
expected to be strict. Our approximate approach is to search for springs (each with spring constant D0) in series. One immediately
solutions based on a rigid wall, whereas the surrounding as well gets D2/D0 ¼ 2/3. In three dimensions, however, the situation is
as the shell exhibit relatively small shear moduli. In 1995, more complex because a compression of an elastic solid in one
corresponding pentamode metamaterials have independently direction is accompanied by an expansion/contraction in the two
been suggested by Sigmund32 and by Milton and Cherkaev33. orthogonal directions. This makes the problem non-trivial.
Bendsøe and Sigmund32 used numerical topology optimization25; Next, we map these parameters onto a pentamode micro-
Milton and Cherkaev’s33 considerations were analytical and structure (see Fig. 1). The bulk modulus can be tailored via the
included anisotropic versions. Pentamode materials have a ratio of the small connection diameter d and the face-centered
pseudo-elasticity tensor with one non-zero eigenvalue that is of cubic (fcc) unit cell lattice constant a (see Fig. 1). For simplicity,
the pure pressure type. Polymeric realizations of pentamode we also fix the diameter D of the thick ends of the double cones
metamaterials with ratios of bulk to shear modulus as large as throughout the entire structure as this quantity hardly enters into
B/G ¼ 1,000 have recently become available experimentally the mechanical properties34. We have previously shown35 that the
in microscopic34 and macroscopic35 form. The pentamode effective pentamode bulk (shear) modulus scales approximately
microstructure33,34 is illustrated in Fig. 1. according to Bpd/a and Gp(d/a)3. We choose a cylinder rather
In regard to static compression, assuming an incompressible than a sphere because this geometry allows us to observe the
and not deformable hollow cylinder (that is, B1/B0c1, B1/B2c1, displacement close to the surface of the cloaking shell as directly
G1/G0c1 and G1/G2c1) as well as pentamode metamaterials for as possible at the samples’ boundaries.
the surrounding (that is, B0/G0c1) and for the shell (that is, For any specific pushing direction in Fig. 1, e.g., along the
B2/G2c1), one gets the simple result3 for the relative bulk vertical direction, by symmetry, the problem is equivalent to a

Reference Obstacle Cloak

Cloak Cloak surrounding Cloak shell

D = 10 μm D = 10 μm
a = 125 μm

d0 = 6.6 μm d2 = 3.3 μm

Figure 2 | Fabricated elasto-mechanical structures. Electron micrographs of (a) the homogeneous pentamode metamaterial (the ‘reference’),
(b) same, but with a rigid hollow cylinder (the ‘obstacle’) and (c) rigid hollow cylinder and cloaking shell (the ‘cloak’). For example, the homogeneous
pentamode-metamaterial sample contains 16  8  8 ¼ 1,024 face-centered cubic (fcc) extended unit cells with lattice constant a ¼ 125 mm and has a
macroscopic total volume of V ¼ 2 mm3, an important prerequisite for performing the measurements shown in Fig. 3. Selected magnified views of the cloak
in (c) are depicted in panels (d–f). Relevant dimensions are indicated (compare Fig. 1b). Black scale bars, 200 mm. White scale bars, 10 mm.

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 5:4130 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5130 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications 3

& 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
ARTICLE NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5130

half of it. This geometry somewhat resembles the 3D carpet a

cloak demonstrated experimentally in optics a few years ago11.
For simplicity, we use this carpet or mattress geometry
(see Supplementary Fig. 1) in our experiments as it is clear 1
by symmetry that the complete free-space structure is
2
omnidirectional.
3

Experimental results. Altogether, our fabricated pentamode

cloak microstructure depicted in Fig. 2 has the following design
parameters: a ¼ 125 mm and D/a ¼ 8% (or D ¼ 10 mm) through-
out, Ri/a ¼ 2 (not critical because the wall is rigid), R1/a ¼ 3, b
R2/a ¼ 4, d0/a ¼ 5.3% (or d0 ¼ 6.6 mm) and d2/a ¼ 2.4% (or 1
2 20
d2 ¼ 3.0 mm). Within the surrounding, this leads to B0/G0 ¼ 120,
in the cloaking shell to B2/G2 ¼ 908. The overall polymer
microstructure shown in Fig. 2 contains 16  8  8 ¼ 1,024
extended fcc pentamode unit cells and has a total volume of
10
V ¼ 2 mm3. Within measurement accuracy, the structure para- 1 Reference
meters a, D and d0 are identical to their design values. Owing to Obstacle
fabrication constraints, only the diameter d2 in Fig. 2f is slightly Cloak
larger than its design value. The fabrication of each sample by fast
galvo-scanner dip-in 3D direct laser writing (DLW) optical c 0 0
lithography has taken about 12 h (for details see Methods). We 2

Displacement ⎜uy ⎜(μm)

2 20
are not aware of any other approach capable of yielding structures

Strain ⎜uy/h ⎜(%)

with such small internal and such large overall dimensions.
In our quasi-static characterization experiments, a hard silicon
stamp aligned parallel to the sample surface (see Fig. 3) pushes
1 10
onto the sample via a motorized translational stage. The glass
substrate at the bottom is fixed. We optically image the entire
structure from the side, that is, in a plane perpendicular to the
stamp, and record movies while varying the strain. To
d 0 0
quantitatively analyse these movies, we use autocorrelation
software to track individual points in the unit cells, delivering a 3
2 20
spatial resolution beyond that of the individual camera pixels (for
details see Methods). This analysis provides us with the
displacement field or local-strain field directly from the experi-
ment with good signal-to-noise ratio, even at maximum vertical
1 10
strains ( ¼ vertical component of the displacement vector divided
by the overall sample height) as low as 1%.
Figure 3 shows the results for the homogeneous pentamode-
metamaterial structure (the ‘reference’), the homogeneous 0
0
pentamode structure with a rigid hollow cylinder (the ‘obstacle’) –1 –0.5 0 0.5 1
and the cloak including an additional pentamode-metamaterial x-Coordinate (mm)
shell. Data are shown for selected movie frames corresponding to
the same strain of 2.8% at the top of the structures. Complete Figure 3 | Elasto-mechanical measurements. (a) Optical photograph
movies for the reference, the obstacle and the cloak are shown in (actually one movie frame) of the cloaking structure (see Fig. 2) when
Supplementary Movies 1, 2 and 3, respectively. There (see pushing is started from the top with a hard stamp. The red dashed semi-
Supplementary Fig. 2), we also show data for a different choice of circle indicates the outer radius of the cloaking shell. The white dashed
d2/a ¼ 2.3% (instead of the above 2.4%) for a cloaking structure horizontal lines indicate the cuts depicted in panels b (#1), c (#2) and
represented just like in Fig. 3. These data provide information on d (#3). There, the vertical component of the displacement vector uy
the sensitivity of fabrication errors. Figure 3 displays the vertical (right-hand side scale) and the corresponding strain with respect to the
strain along three selected horizontal lines. Most relevant is cut #2 overall sample height h (left-hand side scale) are shown for the
located just slightly above the cloaking shell (indicated by the homogeneous pentamode metamaterial (‘reference’, green dots), the
dashed semi-circle), where the displacement strongly varies for homogeneous pentamode metamaterial with a rigid hollow cylinder added
the obstacle structure: in the center, the modulus of the strain is (‘obstacle’, blue triangles) and for the cloak (red squares). With cloak
nearly three times smaller than on the sides. This also means that (Fig. 1), we recover nearly a horizontal line, which we also find for a
one cannot simply cloak the obstacle by a homogeneous material, homogeneous medium without cylinder. This means that we have
for example, by a block of some foam. In contrast, the succeeded in making the hollow cylinder and its possible interior
displacement for the spatially inhomogeneous cloak structure is ‘unfeelable’. The region of the rigid cylinder (dashed lines) and the cloaking
similar to that for a homogeneous environment without cylinder shell with near-zero displacement is highlighted in grey in panels (b–d).
and without shell. Both displacement curves are just slightly bent
towards the open sample sides. The other cut #1 further away the height of the structure is sufficiently large to avoid artifacts
from the rigid cylinder shows a similar behaviour, however, as to owing to finite sample height. Furthermore, from the fact that the
be expected, with much less pronounced differences between the above design process is based on an infinite depth of the cloak,
homogeneous pentamode metamaterial and the obstacle in the whereas our fabricated structure is finite in depth as well, we
first place, that is, there is less to be cloaked. This also means that estimate that artifacts due to measuring on the surface of the

4 NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 5:4130 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5130 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications

& 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5130 ARTICLE

sample (actually about the first unit cell) rather than in the bulk
are on the order of relative 10%. Likewise, the effects of the rigid
cylinder are small for cut #3 as well. These overall observations 1
mean that we have succeeded in approaching an ideal elasto-
mechanical cloak. 2

3
Comparison with numerical calculations. Finally, we compare
our experimental results with numerical continuum-mechanics
calculations (for details see Methods) for the 3D pentamode
microstructure to see how much possible experimental imper-
fections influence the results. Owing to memory and computation
1
time constraints, we have not been able to perform calculations 2 20
for the complete microstructure with 16  8  8 extended fcc unit
cells. However, we have been able to obtain converged results for
a reduced structure with 16  8  1 extended fcc unit cells and all
of the above design parameters. In these calculations, we have 1 Reference 10
employed fixed boundary conditions at the bottom substrate, Obstacle
have assumed zero horizontal component of the displacement Cloak
vector at the top stamp and open-boundary conditions on the left
and on the right—just like in the experiments discussed above 0 0
and shown in Figs 2 and 3. In the z-direction, we have used open- 2

Displacement |uy | (μm)

boundary conditions on one side (like in the experiment) and 2 20

Strain |uy /h| (%)

sliding-boundary conditions on the other. These mixed boundary
conditions are an attempt to model the finite structure given tight
numerical constraints. The numerical results in Fig. 4 are in good
1 10
agreement with the experiments shown in Fig. 3. In particular, the
vertical component of the displacement vector just outside the
cloaking shell in cut #2 already approaches a horizontal straight
line—just like for a homogeneous pentamode-metamaterial 0 0
environment.
3
2 20
Discussion
In 2006, Milton et al.36 pointed out that the equations of solid
elastostatics (and -dynamics) are not form-invariant under
arbitrary curvilinear coordinate transformations. In sharp 1 10
contrast, the Maxwell equations, the acoustic wave equation
and the equations of heat conduction and diffusion are form-
invariant. Their36 mathematical finding suggests that perfect
0 0
elastostatic cloaking may not be possible. Here, we have designed, –1 –0.5 0 0.5 1
fabricated and characterized an approximate elastostatic core- x-Coordinate (mm)
shell cloak based on 3D pentamode metamaterials. By using an
autocorrelation-based image analysis to directly measure Figure 4 | Elasto-mechanical calculations. These theoretical results are
the displacement-vector field, we find very good cloaking represented like the experimental ones shown in Fig. 3. The calculations use
performance under uniaxial pushing conditions. the pentamode microstructure identical to that depicted in Fig. 1, but only
The fabrication of the underlying intricate cloaking micro- 16  8  1 extended fcc unit cells. (a) Scheme, (b-d) cuts through the data
structures with as many as 1,024 extended unit cells and with along the three horizontal dashed straight lines indicated in panel a.
2 mm3 overall volume has only become possible by virtue of 3D
dip-in galvo-scanner-based DLW optical laser lithography. Our
The writing speed was set to 5 cm s 1. After the DLW of the preprogrammed
results raise hopes that further mechanical metamaterial pattern, the exposed sample was developed for 20 min in mr-Dev 600 and acetone.
architectures may become accessible experimentally in the near The process was finished in a supercritical point dryer to avoid capillary forces
future. during drying.

Methods Sample characterization. The images used for the extraction of the strain field
Fabrication. For the fabrication of the mechanical cloak as well as the reference were recorded with a camera (Sony GigE Vision XCG-5005CR) attached to a stereo
structures, we used the commercially available DLW system Photonic Professional microscope (Leica Mz 125 and a 0.5  adapter from Leica mount to C-Mount). To
GT (Nanoscribe GmbH, Germany). In this setup, a liquid photoresist (IP-S resist, reduce data, the images were then cropped to show only the structure and its close
Nanoscribe GmbH) was polymerized via multi-photon absorption using a fre- vicinity. For each picture taken, a linear stage induced a different predefined strain
quency-doubled Erbium fibre laser with a center wavelength of 780 nm and with a into the sample. The strain was successively increased in 50 steps towards the
pulse duration of about 90 fs. The 3D exposure pattern was addressed by laser maximum value and afterwards decreased in 50 steps back to the initial value with
scanning using a set of galvo-mirrors and mechanical stages. The samples were a strain rate of 2% per minute. The glass substrate with the sample was attached to
prepared by drop-casting the negative-tone photoresist on a glass cover slip a goniometer and a micrometre stage to allow for positioning and aligning the
(22  22  0.17 mm). To avoid depth-dependent aberrations, the objective lens sample with respect to the rest of the setup. The stamp was moved with a linear
(  25, numerical aperture ¼ 0.8, Carl Zeiss) was directly dipped into the resist. stage to which part of a silicon wafer with well-defined surface was attached.
Structural data were created in STL file format using the open-source software The software used to extract the strain field was based on a freely available
Blender and COMSOL Multiphysics. The software package Describe (Nanoscribe package37. Here, selected markers with a set size of 15  15 image pixels were
GmbH) was used to compile the CAD data into machine code. The scan raster was cross-correlated with the images from the measurement. The initial marker
set to 0.5 mm laterally and 1 mm axially. The structure was laterally split into 8 scan positions were fixed in a square grid with a spacing of 15 pixels in both dimensions
fields of about 500  500 mm2 footprint each that were stitched together. spanning the entire size of the sample. This resulted in 67 markers along the

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 5:4130 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5130 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications 5

& 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
ARTICLE NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5130

horizontal direction and about 35 in the vertical. The tracking algorithm was set to 20. Stenger, N., Wilhelm, M. & Wegener, M. Experiments on elastic cloaking in
a precision of 1/1,000 pixel. After cross-correlation, the position of each marker
thin plates. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 014301 (2012).
was known for each image. By subtracting the current marker positions from those
21. Amirkhizi, A.V., Tehranian, A. & Nemat-Nasser, S. Stress-wave energy
of the reference frame, the displacement vector field was calculated for each image.
management through material anisotropy. Wave Motion 47, 519–536 (2010).
Small movements of the glass substrate were corrected for. Movies of the reference,
22. Kadic, M., Bückmann, T., Schittny, R. & Wegener, M. Metamaterials beyond
the obstacle and the cloak sample are given as Supplementary Movies 1–3. There,
electromagnetism. Rep. Prog. Phys. 76, 126501 (2013).
the full displacement vectors, multiplied by a factor of 4, are depicted. Additional
colour coding of the modulus of the displacement vector helps to identify gradients. 23. Andkjær, J. & Sigmund, O. Topology optimized low-contrast all-dielectric
Colour coding and scales are identical for the three movies. optical cloak. Appl. Phys. Lett. 98, 021112 (2011).
24. Urzhumov, Y., Landy, N., Driscoll, T., Basov, D. & Smith, D. R. Thin low-loss
dielectric coatings for free-space cloaking. Opt. Lett. 38, 1606–1608 (2013).
Numerical calculations. We used the commercial software package COMSOL 25. Bendsøe, M. P. & Sigmund, O. Topology Optimization: Theory, Methods and
Multiphysics to numerically solve the static equations for linear elasticity. This Applications (Springer, 2003).
means that neither a nonlinearity of the constituent material nor of the structure 26. Kerner, E.H. The elastic and thermo-elastic properties of composite media.
was accounted for. The geometry with the design parameters described in the main Proc. Phys. Soc. B 69, 808–813 (1956).
text was built using the internal kernel of COMSOL Multiphysics. The mesh 27. Hashin, Z. & Shtrikman, S. A variational approach to the theory of the effective
consisted of about 640,000 tetrahedral elements (in COMSOL nomenclature: magnetic permeability of multiphase materials. J. Appl. Phys. 33, 3125 (1962).
maximum element size ¼ 0.2  a, minimum element size ¼ 0.05  a, maximum 28. Hashin, Z. & Shtrikman, S. A variational approach to the theory of the elastic
element growth rate ¼ 16, resolution of curvature ¼ 0.7 and resolution of narrow behaviour of multiphase materials. J. Mech. Phys. Solids 11, 127–140 (1963).
regions ¼ 0.4) corresponding to 3–4  106 degrees of freedom. We used the direct 29. Alù, A. & Engheta, N. Achieving transparency with plasmonic and
solver MUMPS with a convergence tolerance of 10  3. As constituent material, we metamaterial coatings. Phys. Rev. E 72, 016623 (2005).
set an isotropic polymer with Young’s modulus ¼ 1 GPa , Poisson’s ratio v ¼ 0.4
30. Zhou, X., Hu, G. & Lu, T. Elastic wave transparency of a solid sphere coated
and mass density r ¼ 1,200 kg m  3. Owing to the scalability of the underlying
with metamaterials. Phys. Rev. B 77, 024101 (2008).
equations, Young’s modulus and mass density did not even enter into the final
31. Smith, J. D. & Verrier, P.E. The effect of shear on acoustic cloaking. Proc. R.
results. The Poisson’s ratio was not actually important28,29. To deduce the
Soc. A 467, 2291–2309 (2011).
displacements depicted in Fig. 4, we have tracked the connections with diameter
32. Sigmund, O. Tailoring materials with prescribed elastic properties. Mech.
d in the middle of the extended fcc unit cell with respect to the z-direction. Further
data processing was done like in the experiment. Mater. 20, 351–368 (1995).
33. Milton, G.W. & Cherkaev, A. Which elasticity tensors are realizable? J. Eng.
Mater. Technol. 117, 483–494 (1995).
References 34. Kadic, M., Bückmann, T., Stenger, N., Thiel, M. & Wegener, M. On the
1. Solymar, L. & Shamonina, E. Waves in Metamaterials (Oxford Univ. Press, feasibility of pentamode mechanical metamaterials. Appl. Phys. Lett. 100,
2009). 191901 (2012).
2. Banerjee, B. An Introduction to Metamaterials and Waves in Composites 35. Schittny, R., Bückmann, T., Kadic, M. & Wegener, M. Elastic measurements on
(Taylor & Francis, 2011). macroscopic three-dimensional pentamode metamaterials. Appl. Phys. Lett.
3. Milton, G. W. The Theory of Composites (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002). 103, 231905 (2013).
4. Leonhardt, U. Optical conformal mapping. Science 312, 1777–1780 (2006). 36. Milton, G.W., Briane, M. & Willis, J. R. On cloaking for elasticity and physical
5. Pendry, J. B., Schurig, D. & Smith, R. Controlling electromagnetic fields. Science equations with a transformation invariant form. New J. Phys. 8, 248 (2006).
312, 1780–1782 (2006). 37. Eberl, C., Thompson, R. J. & Gianola, D. S. Free digital image correlation and
6. Chen, H., Chan, C.T. & Sheng, P. Transformation optics and metamaterials. tracking functions. Preprint at http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/
Nat. Mater. 9, 387–396 (2010). fileexchange/12413.
7. Philbin, T. & Leonhardt, U. Geometry and Light: The Science of Invisibility
(Dover Publications, 2010).
8. Schurig, D. et al. Metamaterial electromagnetic cloak at microwave frequencies. Acknowledgements
Science 314, 977–980 (2006). We thank Jonathan Müller (KIT) for discussions, Johannes Kaschke for taking the
9. Valentine, J., Li, J., Zentgraf, T., Bartal, G. & Zhang, X. An optical cloak made of electron micrographs, Johann Westhauser for help in constructing the measurement
dielectrics. Nat. Mater. 8, 568–571 (2009). setup and Tobias Frenzel for providing us with the drawing of the princess on the pea.
10. Gabrielli, L. H., Cardenas, J., Poitras, C. B. & Lipson, M. Silicon nanostructure We acknowledge support by the DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN) at
cloak operating at optical frequencies. Nat. Photon. 3, 461–463 (2009). KIT through subprojects A1.04 and A1.05 and by the Karlsruhe School of Optics &
11. Ergin, T., Stenger, N., Brenner, P., Pendry, J. B. & Wegener, M. Photonics (KSOP) at KIT. We also thank the Hector Fellow Academy for support.
Three-dimensional invisibility cloak at optical wavelengths. Science 328,
337–339 (2010).
12. Popa, B. I., Zigoneanu, L. & Cummer, S.A. Experimental acoustic ground cloak
in air. Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 253901 (2011). Author contributions
13. Sanchis, L. et al. Three-dimensional axissymetric cloak based on the T.B. has performed the measurements and the data processing. M.T. has fabricated the
cancellation of acousic scattering from a sphere. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 124301 samples. M.K. has helped in the simulations and discussions. R.S. has helped in the
(2013). discussions. M.W. has led the effort and has written the first draft of the paper.
14. Zhang, S., Xia, C. & Fang, N. Broadband acoustic cloak for ultrasound waves. All authors have contributed to the final version of the manuscript.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 024301 (2011).
15. Farhat, M., Enoch, S., Guenneau, S. & Movchan, A.B. Broadband cylindrical
acoustic cloak for linear surface waves in a fluid. Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 134501 Additional information
(2008). Supplementary Information accompanies this paper at http://www.nature.com/
16. Yang, F., Mei, Z.L. & Jin, T.Y. dc Electric Invisibility Cloak. Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, naturecommunications
053902 (2012).
17. Schittny, R., Kadic, M., Guenneau, S. & Wegener, M. Experiments on Competing financial interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests.
transformation thermodynamics: molding the flow of heat. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, Reprints and permission information is available online at http://npg.nature.com/
195901 (2013). reprintsandpermissions/
18. Xu, H., Shi, X., Gao, F., Sun, H. & Zang, B. Ultrathin three-dimensional thermal
cloak. Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 054301 (2014). How to cite this article: Bückmann, T. et al. An elasto-mechanical unfeelability cloak
19. Han, T. et al. Experimental demonstration of a bilayer thermal cloak. Phys. Rev. made of pentamode metamaterials. Nat. Commun. 5:4130 doi: 10.1038/ncomms5130
Lett. 112, 054302 (2014). (2014).

6 NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 5:4130 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5130 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications

& 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.