June 26, 2003 — IBM and university researchers unveiled a three-dimensional material self-assembled from two different nanoparticles.

The discovery, from IBM Research, Columbia University and the University of New Orleans, involved tailoring experimental conditions to get the magnetic and semiconducting nanoparticles to assemble themselves in three different, repeating 3-D structures. Other materials have assembled spontaneously, but none has been made of two components in three dimensions and at the lengths in this demonstration, it was reported in today’s issue of the journal Nature.

The modular assembly method should enable researchers to bring almost any materials together, and this particular combination might have magneto-optical properties as well as applications in the development of quantum computing, the company said.