Instabilities in multilayered soft dielectrics

Harnessing large deformation and instabilities of soft dielectrics: Theory, experiment, and application

Widely used as insulators, capacitors, and transducers in daily life, soft dielectrics based on polymers and polymeric gels play important roles in modern electrified society. Owning to their mechanical compliance, soft dielectrics subject to voltages frequently undergo large deformation and mechanical instabilities. The deformation and instabilities can lead to detrimental failures in some app...

Multiscale instabilities in soft heterogeneous dielectric elastomers.

The development of instabilities in soft heterogeneous dielectric elastomers is investigated. Motivated by experiments and possible applications, we use in our analysis the physically relevant referential electric field instead of electric displacement. In terms of this variable, a closed form solution is derived for the class of layered neo-Hookean dielectrics. A criterion for the onset of ele...

Mechanical constraints enhance electrical energy densities of soft dielectrics

Dielectrics are essential components in modern electronics and electric systems. When a sufficiently high voltage is applied on a layer of a dielectric, the dielectric will breakdown electrically. The breakdown limits the electrical energy density of the dielectric. We show that constraining the deformation of soft dielectrics can greatly enhance their breakdown electric fields and thus increas...

Electric-field induced surface instabilities of soft dielectrics and their effects on optical transmittance and scattering

Spherical cloaking with homogeneous isotropic multilayered structures.

We propose a practical realization of electromagnetic spherical cloaking by layered structure of homogeneous isotropic materials. By mimicking the classic anisotropic cloak by many alternating thin layers of isotropic dielectrics, the permittivity and permeability in each isotropic layer can be properly determined by effective medium theory in order to achieve invisibility. The model greatly fa...