Abstract
Quasicrystals are long-range-ordered materials that lack translational invariance, so the study of their physical properties remains a challenging problem. Here, we have carried out inelastic-X-ray- and neutron-scattering experiments on single-grain samples of the Zn–Mg–Sc icosahedral quasicrystal and of the Zn–Sc periodic cubic 1/1 approximant, with the aim of studying the respective influence of the local order and of the long-range order (periodic or quasiperiodic) on lattice dynamics. Besides the overall similarities and the existence of a pseudo-gap in the transverse dispersion relation, marked differences are observed, the pseudo-gap being larger and better defined in the approximant than in the quasicrystal. This can be qualitatively explained using the concept of a pseudo-Brillouin-zone in the quasicrystal. These results are compared with simulations on atomic models and using oscillating pair potentials, and the simulations reproduce in detail the experimental results. This paves the way for a detailed understanding of the physics of quasicrystals.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the LLB, the ILL and the Spring-8 facilities for the allocation of beam time. We thank Y. Kaneko for his help in sample preparation. Part of the work has been initiated within the European Complex Metallic Alloy Network of Excellence. M.M. has been supported by a CNRS grant during his stay at the SIMAP, and by the Slovak grant agency APVV-0413-06. M.d.B. acknowledges the financial support of the Tohoku University during his stay at the IMRAM.
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de Boissieu, M., Francoual, S., Mihalkovič, M. et al. Lattice dynamics of the Zn–Mg–Sc icosahedral quasicrystal and its Zn–Sc periodic 1/1 approximant. Nature Mater 6, 977–984 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2044
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2044
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