Auxetic Black Phosphorus: A 2D Material with Negative Poisson’s Ratio

The Poisson's ratio of a material characterizes its response to uniaxial strain. Materials normally possess a positive Poisson's ratio - they contract laterally when stretched, and expand laterally when compressed. A negative Poisson's ratio is theoretically permissible but has not, with few exceptions of man-made bulk structures, been experimentally observed in any natural materials. Here, we show that the negative Poisson's ratio exists in the...