Shiny mega-crystals that build themselves

Empa and ETH Zurich researchers are playing with shape-engineered nanoscale building blocks that are up to 100-times larger than atoms and ions. Although these nano "Lego bricks" interact with each other with forces vastly different and much weaker than those holding atoms and ions together, they form crystals all by themselves, the structures of which resemble the ones of natural minerals. Thesesuperlattices exhibit unique properties such as superfluorescence - and may well usher in a new era in materials science.