| Nanoparticles rather easily assemble into simple crystal structures like the face-centered cubic lattice or the body-centered cubic lattice. More complex phases are harder to achieve, but have recently been reported using a number of approaches. Yet, assembling complex structures often results from trial-and-error and is not well understood. Here, we show how novel crystals and quasicrystals can be achieved by varying the interactions and the shapes of the nanoscale building blocks. Using computer simulations, we demonstrate the formation of unusually ordered phases both with isotropic pair potentials, as well as with facetted shapes like polyhedra. We describe new tools we have developed to perform complex structural analysis on simulated systems and show how, in some cases, the outcome of assembly experiments could be predicted. |
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