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Atomic structure of the binary icosahedral Yb–Cd quasicrystal

Nature Materials volume 6, pages 58–63 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Icosahedral quasicrystals (i-QCs) are long-range ordered solids that show non-crystallographic symmetries such as five-fold rotations. Their detailed atomic structures are still far from completely understood, because most stable i-QCs form as ternary alloys suffering from chemical disorder. Here, we present the first detailed structure solution of i-YbCd5.7, one of the very few stable binary i-QCs, by means of X-ray structure determination. Three building units with unique atomic decorations arrange quasiperiodically and fill the space. These also serve as building units in the periodic approximant crystals. The structure is not only chemically feasible, but also provides a seamless structural understanding of the i-YbCd5.7 phase and its series of related i-QCs and approximant crystals, revealing hierarchic features that are of considerable physical interest.

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Figure 1: Approximants, building units and linkages.
Figure 2: Reconstructed 6D electron densities for the i-YbCd5.7 QC and observed atomic shells.
Figure 3: Occupation domains of the i-YbCd5.7 QC model.
Figure 4: Ideal structure of the i-YbCd5.7 QC.
Figure 5: Inflation properties of the i-YbCd5.7 QC.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and the French Cooperative Research Group for the allocation of beam time on the D2AM beam line. We thank N. Boudet and J. F. Berar for their assistance on D2AM during the experiment. C.P.G. has been financially supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Applied Physics, Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-8628, Japan

    Hiroyuki Takakura

  2. Solution Oriented Research for Science and Technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Kawaguchi, Saitama, 332-0012, Japan

    Hiroyuki Takakura, Akiji Yamamoto & An Pang Tsai

  3. Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan

    Cesar Pay Gómez & An Pang Tsai

  4. National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, 305-0044, Japan

    Akiji Yamamoto

  5. Laboratoire de Thermodynamique et de Physico-Chimie Métallurgique, UMR CNRS 5614, ENSEEG-INPG, BP 75, 3 8402, Saint Martin d’Hères, France

    Marc De Boissieu

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  1. Hiroyuki Takakura
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Contributions

All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript. H.T. and C.P.G. contributed equally to the final form of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hiroyuki Takakura.

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Takakura, H., Gómez, C., Yamamoto, A. et al. Atomic structure of the binary icosahedral Yb–Cd quasicrystal. Nature Mater 6, 58–63 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1799

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