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  • Featured in Physics
  • Open Access

Enduring Mechanical Memory from the Constitutive Response of Elastically Recoverable Nanostructured Materials

Abhishek Gupta, Bhanugoban Maheswaran, Nicholas Jaegersberg, Komal Chawla, and Ramathasan Thevamaran*

  • *Contact author: thevamaran@wisc.edu
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Phys. Rev. X 16, 031073 – Published 18 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/n723-s2t6

Abstract

Mechanical memory and computing are gaining significant traction as potential means to complement traditional electronics for robust and energy efficient performance in extreme environments. However, progress has largely focused on bistable metamaterials, while traditional constitutive memory phenomena have been largely overlooked—primarily due to the absence of compelling experimental demonstrations in elastically recoverable materials. Here, we report constitutive return point memory (RPM) in elastically recoverable, vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) foams, analogous to magnetic hysteresis-based RPM utilized in hard drives. Unlike viscoelastic fading memory, VACNTs exhibit nonvolatile memory arising from rate-independent nanoscale friction. We find that the interplay between RPM and frictional dissipation enables independent tunability of the VACNTs’ dynamic modulus, allowing for both on-demand softening and stiffening. We leverage this property to experimentally demonstrate tunable wave speed in a VACNT array with elastic interlayers, paving the way for novel shock limiters, elastodynamic lensing, and wave-based analog mechanical computing.

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Nanotube Material Has Perfect Memory

Published 18 September, 2026

A carbon nanotube foam springs back to its initial state, regardless of the speed of the compression, a property that could lead to a new type of shock absorber.

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Popular Summary

Mechanical computing and memory architectures have evolved dramatically from ancient Greek mechanical devices like the Antikyhthera mechanism. These present opportunities for analog-digital hybrid computing in extreme environments and efficient in-memory computing for AI applications. Within the mechanical memory landscape, constitutive memory phenomena such as return-point memory (RPM) have remained largely unexplored. This is due to a lack of demonstrated functionality and elastic recoverability in the hysteretic stress-strain response of elastoplastic materials. We discover stable RPM in an elastically recoverable vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) foam, arising from rate-independent nanoscale frictional dissipation. Unlike the fading memory characteristics of conventional viscoelastic foams, the frictional dissipation mechanism in VACNT foams gives rise to persistent, nonfading mechanical memory. We further demonstrate that this constitutive memory enables programmable modulation of mechanical properties, providing a foundation for reconfigurable wave transport and wave-based analog mechanical computing, as validated through experiments and theoretical modeling.

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Phys. Rev. X 16, 031073– Published 18 September, 2026
  • Received 22 January 2026
  • Accepted 22 July 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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