Non-chiral, molecular model of negative Poisson ratio in two dimensions

A two-dimensional model of tri-atomic molecules (in which 'atoms' are distributed on vertices of equilateral triangles, and which are further referred to as cyclic trimers) is solved exactly in the static (zero-temperature) limit for the nearest-neighbour site–site interactions. It is shown that the cyclic trimers form a mechanically stable and elastically isotropic non-chiral phase of negative Poisson ratio. The properties of the system are illustrated by three examples of atom–atom interaction potentials: (i) the purely repulsive (n-inverse-power) potential, (ii) the purely attractive (n-power) potential and (iii) the Lennard-Jones potential which shows both the repulsive and the attractive part. The analytic form of the dependence of the Poisson ratio on the interatomic potential is obtained. It is shown that the Poisson ratio depends, in a universal way, only on the trimer anisotropy parameter both (1) in the limit of n → ∞ for cases (i) and (ii), as well as (2) at the zero external pressure for any potential with a doubly differentiable minimum, case (iii) is an example.