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Alloys

Atomic structure of the quasicrystal Al72Ni20Co8

Nature volume 403, pages 266–267 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Steinhardt et al.1 reported experimental evidence in support of the coverage model2,3,4 by presenting a structure for the high-perfection decagonal quasicrystal Al72Ni20Co8. The coverage model describes the decagonal quasicrystals by a single type of tile, a decagon, the basic 2-nm cluster of which is allowed to overlap so as to cover the surface. Although their Z-contrast image (also referred to as a high-angle annular dark-field image) supports the coverage model, we find that the atomic structure they propose for the decagon has significant shortcomings which are inconsistent with our Z-contrast images.

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Figure 1: Comparison of the proposed “best-fit candidate model”1 for the 2-nm cluster of the high-perfection decagonal quasicrystal Al72Ni20Co8 with our higher resolution Z-contrast image.
Figure 2: Cluster showing broken decagonal symmetry within the central ring, but there are still ten columns present, five of which have higher intensities (yellow), indicating high TM occupancy, whereas the other five show high Al occupancy (red).

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References

  1. Steinhardt, P. J. et al. Nature 396, 55–57 (1998); correction Nature 399, 84 (1999).

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  2. Gummelt, P. Geometriae Dedicata 62, 1–17 (1996).

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  5. Yan, Y. & Pennycook, S. J. Mater. Sci. Eng. (in the press).

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Author notes

  1. Yanfa Yan

    Present address: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado, 80401, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, 37831, Tennessee, USA

    Yanfa Yan & Stephen J. Pennycook

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  1. Yanfa Yan
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  2. Stephen J. Pennycook
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Correspondence to Yanfa Yan.

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Yan, Y., Pennycook, S. Atomic structure of the quasicrystal Al72Ni20Co8. Nature 403, 266–267 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35002251

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