%0 journal article %@ 1438-1656 %A do Rosário, J., Lilleodden, E., Waleczek, M., Kubin, R., Petrov, A., Dyachenko, P., Sabisch, J., Nielsch, K., Huber, N., Eich, M., Schneider, G. %D 2015 %J Advanced Engineering Materials %N 10 %P 1420-1424 %R doi:10.1002/adem.201500118 %T Self‐Assembled Ultra High Strength, Ultra Stiff Mechanical Metamaterials Based on Inverse Opals %U https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.201500118 10 %X Inverse opals are presented as a class of mechanical metamaterials. Pure silica and titania coated silica inverse opals show high strength‐ and modulus‐to‐weight ratios, even outperforming many optimized strut‐based microfabricated ceramic materials. Micropillars were fabricated out of self‐assembled layers and tested under compression. Their high performance is due to its arch‐like structure, where stresses are smoothly directed into the regions of higher material mass, thereby mitigating the stress concentration at the pore perimeter, as confirmed by numerical simulations.