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The elasticity of rubbery polymer networks has been considered to be entropy-driven. On the other hand, studies on single polymer chain mechanics have revealed that the elasticity of ultimately stretched polymer chains is dominated by the energetic contribution mainly originating from chemical bond deformation. Here, we experimentally found that the elasticity of the double-network gel transits from the entropy-dominated one to the internal energy-driven one with its uniaxial deformation through the thermodynamic analysis. Based on this finding, we developed a simple mechanical model that takes into account the energetic contribution and found that this model approximately reproduces the temperature dependence of the stress-strain curve of the double-network gel. This study demonstrates the importance of the chemical perspective in the mechanical analysis of highly deformed rubbery polymer networks.

Precisely measuring pressure in microfluidic flows is essential for flow control, fluid characterization, and monitoring, but faces specific challenges such as \RE{achieving} sufficient resolution, non-invasiveness, or ease of use. Here, we demonstrate a fully integrated multiplexed optofluidic pressure sensor, entirely decoupled from the flow path, that enables local pressure measurements along any microfluidic channel without altering its flow geometry. The sensor itself relies on the compression of a soft mechano-actuated hydrogel, changing color in response to a pressure change. The hydrogel is separated from the fluid circulating in the channel by a thin membrane, allowing for the unrestricted use of different types of fluids. Imaging the gel through the transparent PDMS with a color camera provides a direct, easy, and contact-free determination of the fluid pressure at the sensing location for pressures as small as \SI{20}{\milli\bar} with a resolution of around \SI{10}{\milli\bar}. The sensitivity and accessible pressure range can be tuned via the mechanical properties \RE{of the sensing unit}. The photonic gel can also be used to acquire 2D pressure or deformation maps, taking advantage of the fast response time and fine spatial resolution.

Crystalline CaF2 is drawing huge attentions due to its great potential of being the gate dielectric of two-dimensional (2D) material MOSFETs. It is deemed to be much superior than boron nitride and traditional SiO2 because of its larger dielectric constant, wider band gap, and lower defect density. Nevertheless, the CaF2-based MOSFETs fabricated in experiment still present notable reliability issues, and the underlying reason remains unclear. Here we studied the various intrinsic defects and adsorbates in CaF2/MoS2 and CaF2/MoSi2N4 interface systems to reveal the most active charge trapping centers in CaF2-based 2D material MOSFETs. An elaborate Table that comparing the importance of different defects in both n-type and p-type device is provided. Most impressively, the oxygen molecules adsorbed at the interface or surface, which are inevitable in experiments, are as active as the intrinsic defects in channel materials, and they can even change the MoSi2N4 to p-type spontaneously. These results mean that it is necessary to develop high vacuum packaging process as well as preparing high-quality 2D materials for better device performance.

Cracks in soft materials exhibit diverse dynamic patterns, involving straight, oscillation, branching, and supershear fracture. Here, we successfully reproduce these crack morphologies in a two-dimensional pre-strained fracture scenario and establish crack stability phase diagrams for three distinct nonlinear materials using a fracture phase field model. The contrasting phase diagrams highlight the crucial role of nonlinearity in regulating crack dynamics. In strain-softening materials, crack branching prevails, limiting the cracks to sub-Rayleigh states. Yet strain-stiffening stabilizes crack propagation, allowing for the presence of supershear fracture. Of particular interest is the large-strain linear elastic materials, where crack oscillation is readily triggered. The onset speed of such instability scales linearly with the characteristic wave speed near the crack tip, supporting the notion that such crack oscillations are a universal instability closely tied to the wave speed. The oscillation wavelength is shown to be a bilinear function of the nonlinear scale and crack driving force, with a minimum length scale associated with the dissipative zone. Moreover, our findings suggest that the increase in characteristic wave speed due to strain-stiffening can account for the observed transition of cracks from sub-Rayleigh to supershear regimes., Comment: 12 pages,4 figures

This paper proposes a vehicular platoon control approach under Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks and external disturbances. DoS attacks increase the service time on the communication network and cause additional transmission delays, which consequently increase the risk of rear-end collisions of vehicles in the platoon. To counter DoS attacks, we propose a resilient control scheme that exploits polytopic overapproximations of the closed-loop dynamics under DoS attacks. This scheme allows synthesizing robust controllers that guarantee tracking of both the desired spacing policy and spatially varying reference velocity for all space-varying DoS attacks satisfying a hard upper bound on the attack duration. In addition, L2 string stability conditions are derived to ensure that external perturbations do not grow as they propagate through the platoon, thus ensuring the string stability. Numerical simulations illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control method.