Highly anisotropic elements for acoustic pentamode applications.

Pentamode metamaterials are a class of acoustic metafluids that are characterized by a divergence free modified stress tensor. Such materials have an unconventional anisotropic stiffness and isotropic mass density, which allow themselves to mimic other fluid domains. Here we present a pentamode design formed by an oblique honeycomb lattice and producing customizable anisotropic properties. It is shown that anisotropy in the stiffness can exceed 3 orders of magnitude, and that it can be realistically tailored for transformation acoustic applications.