Coupled technique to produce two-dimensional superlattices of nanoparticles

We present an original technique to produce high-quality monodisperse two-dimensional (2D) superlattices of nanoparticles. This technique is based on the diffusion of metal atoms deposited by pulsed-laser ablation technique into the first layer of a 3D-structured mesoporous silica film obtained by a sol-gel method. This hybrid technique is very promising since it can potentially produce a wide variety of 2D superlattices by changing the host mesoporous film parameters (particle size and shape, 2D structure symmetry) or the type of deposited materials. In this letter, we show experimental results obtained with 2D square and hexagonal silver superstructures. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.