High‐Aspect‐Ratio Nanostructured Surfaces as Biological Metamaterials

Metamaterials, artificial electromagnetic media that are structured on the subwavelength scale, were initially suggested for the negative-index 'superlens'. Later metamaterials became a paradigm for engineering electromagnetic space and controlling propagation of waves: the field of transformation optics was born. The research agenda is now shifting towards achieving tunable, switchable, nonlinear and sensing functionalities. It is therefore timely to discuss the emerging field of metadevices where we define the devices as having unique and useful functionalities that are realized by structuring of functional matter on the subwavelength scale. In this Review we summarize research on photonic, terahertz and microwave electromagnetic metamaterials and metadevices with functionalities attained through the exploitation of phase-change media, semiconductors, graphene, carbon nanotubes and liquid crystals. The Review also encompasses microelectromechanical metadevices, metadevices engaging the nonlinear and quantum response of superconductors, electrostatic and optomechanical forces and nonlinear metadevices incorporating lumped nonlinear components.

A key tenet of bone tissue engineering is the development of scaffold materials that can stimulate stem cell differentiation in the absence of chemical treatment to become osteoblasts without compromising material properties. At present, conventional implant materials fail owing to encapsulation by soft tissue, rather than direct bone bonding. Here, we demonstrate the use of nanoscale disorder to stimulate human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to produce bone mineral in vitro, in the absence of osteogenic supplements. This approach has similar efficiency to that of cells cultured with osteogenic media. In addition, the current studies show that topographically treated MSCs have a distinct differentiation profile compared with those treated with osteogenic media, which has implications for cell therapies.

The mechanical properties of ordinary materials degrade substantially with reduced density because their structural elements bend under applied load. We report a class of microarchitected materials that maintain a nearly constant stiffness per unit mass density, even at ultralow density. This performance derives from a network of nearly isotropic microscale unit cells with high structural connectivity and nanoscale features, whose structural members are designed to carry loads in tension or compression. Production of these microlattices, with polymers, metals, or ceramics as constituent materials, is made possible by projection microstereolithography (an additive micromanufacturing technique) combined with nanoscale coating and postprocessing. We found that these materials exhibit ultrastiff properties across more than three orders of magnitude in density, regardless of the constituent material.