Chiral Multi-Stable Kirigami Metamaterials

Bistable kirigami greatly simplifies the deployment of traditional kirigami materials and has attracted interest in reconfigurable components, impact buffering, and soft actuation. However, existing bistable kirigami configurations are limited, with low deployment efficiency. Current methods for transforming two-dimensional planes to three-dimensional surfaces only apply to thin panel kirigami and are restricted by unit stretching, making them unsuitable for complex 3D shapes. To address these challenges, we designed and fabricated a new chiral bistable kirigami metamaterial. A rigid elastic panel model was developed based on geometric incompatibility, predicting the bistable energy barrier through peak area strain of the central elastic segment and verifying it by finite element analysis. We extended the design to trapezoidal thick panel units and iteratively adjusted the hinge angles, discovering tristable behavior for the first time. Using high-precision 3D printing, we created matrices of units with various curvatures, forming three Gaussian curvature metasurfaces: saddle (negative), cylindrical (zero), and petal (positive). Finally, we introduced a local torsion actuation and test with a torque-angle sensing platform. This chiral kirigami structure enriches multistable configuration families and offers new avenues for efficient actuation and 3D transformation of thick-panel kirigami, with broad applications in deployable spatial structures, temporary architectures, flexible electronics, and biomedical devices.