Crystalline Textures on the Al-Ni-Co Quasicrystal Surface

Authors : Mehmet ERBUDAK, Jean-Nicolas LONGCHAMP, Yves WEISSKOPF

Pages : 277-286

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Publication Date : 0000-00-00

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :We have generated cubic Al alloys as commensurate single crystals on the tenfold-symmetry surface of the quasicrystalline Al-Ni-Co alloy by ion bombarding its surface. We find that the crystal-quasicrystal interface contains several alignments of mutual high-symmetry directions and planes. In order to explore the structural matching conditions at the crystal-quasicrystal interface, we have grown Al films on the decagonal surface of Al-Ni-Co by vapor deposition. The initial growth mode of Al is commensurate. As the coverage is increased, Al starts to grow in cubic textures breaking into multi-twinned, few-nanometer- large domains. The symmetry of the substrate determines thereby the orientation of the domains, while the degree of structural mismatch between the crystal and the quasicrystal limits the domain size.
Keywords : crystal, quasicrystal, interface, size selection, self assembly, epitaxy, quantum dots