Scientists at Brown University and the University of Michigan have created and stabilized a previously theoretical crystal phase by assembling custom silver nanoparticles. The breakthrough, published in Science, reveals details of metal crystal transformations and shows room-temperature quantum optical properties.
The team arranged truncated octahedron-shaped silver particles, dubbed mecons, into superlattices that match intermediate structures predicted by the Nishiyama-Wassermann pathway. These structures form during shifts between face-centered cubic and body-centered cubic arrangements in metals such as iron. The nanoparticles were coated with molecular chains that helped lock the transitional forms in place, allowing direct observation for the first time.