Small http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smll201100681 (2011)

Periodic nanostructures have applications in areas such as photonic crystals, data storage devices, tissue engineering and biosensors. As new forms of these materials continue to emerge, there is a need for a system that can classify, store, process and analyse these functional structures. Lin Jia of MIT and Edwin Thomas of Rice University have now proposed a searchable database system that connects the morphologies, fabrication technologies and physical properties of various two- and three-dimensional periodic structures.

Representing a periodic structure by its unit-cell function can take up huge amounts of storage space in a database. Therefore, Jia and Thomas represent a periodic structure by its Fourier components and categorize the structure in a tree format according to their symmetries using the 7 crystal systems, 32 point groups and 230 space groups common in crystallography. Every structure inside the database has a name, which consists of the structure's symmetry, plane (two-dimensional) or space (three-dimensional) group, and physical properties. The database, which will contain a library of various two- and three-dimensional periodic structures, and their corresponding fabrication techniques and parameters, is intended to help design structures with unusual properties. The user inputs a target structure and an automated programme extracts the Fourier coefficients of the target and compares it with structures in the database to output the most similar structure along with their corresponding fabrication parameters.

For such a database to be useful, it will require a large number of structures fabricated from various technologies and worldwide cooperation.