Using finely tuned nanoscale building blocks, researchers from Brown University and the University of Michigan College of Engineering have stabilized a fleeting structural phase of matter that had been predicted theoretically but never before stabilized in a physical material.

The new nanoparticle superlattice, described in the journal Science, freezes an elusive intermediate state between two of nature’s most common crystal metallic arrangements. Beyond describing new details about how this transition works, the new structure exhibits extraordinary optical properties that could be useful in quantum computing or other quantum information systems.

More broadly, the work provides a new recipe for using custom-shaped nanoparticles to engineer entirely new classes of materials with tailored properties.