Schematic of a (purple) material infiltrated into the interstitial spaces within a regular lattice of much larger (cyan) spheres.

A self-assembled crystal formed from nanoscale components, perhaps just simple monodisperse (i.e. same-sized) spheres, forms a framework into which one could infiltrate a wide range of materials. Of particular interest are materials such as ferromagnets that have an order parameter whose intrinsic length scale is comparable to the lattice period of the nanostructure.

Publications

• Packard Fellowship, David and Lucile Packard Foundation
• Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, National Science Foundation DMR-0213623

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.