  We devise an inverse statistical-mechanical methodology to find optimized
interaction potentials that lead spontaneously to a target many-particle
configuration. Target structures can possess varying degrees of disorder, thus
extending the traditional idea of self-assembly to incorporate both amorphous
and crystalline structures as well as quasicrystals. For illustration purposes,
our computational technique is applied to yield an optimized isotropic
(non-directional) pair potential that spontaneously yields the
three-coordinated honeycomb lattice as the ground state structure in two
dimensions. This target choice is motivated by its three-dimensional analog,
the diamond lattice, which is known to possess desirable photonic bandgap
properties.
