Complex pathways in multistable matter

Meulblok, C.M. (2026)

Doctoral Thesis

Massively multistable materials, such as crumpled sheets, display strikingly complex sequential responses when driven. These responses arise from their rugged energy landscapes, which emerge due to disorder and frustration.
This makes the understanding, characterization and design of the sequential response of multistable materials both a fundamental challenge and a technological opportunity for sequential shapemorphing, soft robotics and in-materia computing.
In this thesis, we address three interrelated questions at this frontier. First, we explore how richer modes of driving fundamentally reshape material behavior. Second, we investigate the minimal building blocks that generate
exotic sequential responses. Third, we develop a scalable driving strategy that utilizes dynamics to write many states in a single drive cycle to unlock the full potential of multistable materials. Together, these contributions advance our understanding of the fundamental
physics of frustrated and multistable systems, and build toward a framework for their characterization, control and rational design–paving the way toward programmable and adaptive materials.

• Soft matter

• All authors: Meulblok, C.M.
• Supervisor: Hecke, M.L. van
• Co-supervisor: Serra-Garcia, M.
• Committee: Reis, P.M.; Paulsen, J.D.; Overvelde, J.T.B.; Kraft, D.J.; Molen, S.J. van der
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Leiden Institute of Physics (LION), Faculty of Science, Leiden University
• Date: 2026-09-09
• ISBN (print): 9789465377865