Investigations of the electronic properties and surface structures of aluminum-rich quasicrystalline alloys

The work presented in this dissertation has investigated three distinct areas of interest in the field of quasicrystals: bulk structure, transport properties, and electronic structure. First, they have described the results of a study which explored the fundamental interactions between the atomic species of the icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn quasicrystal. The goal of this work was to determine whether the pseudo-MacKay or Bergman type clusters have a special stability or are merely a geometric coincidence. This was carried out by using laser vaporization to produce gas-phase metal clusters, which were analyzed using time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Next, they have reported their investigations of the bulk thermal transport properties of a decagonal Al-Ni-Co two dimensional quasicrystal in the temperature range 373K-873K. The properties of a sample oriented along the periodic axis and another oriented along the aperiodic axis were measured.Ahigh degree of anisotropy was observed between the aperiodic and periodic directions. The third study presented a detailed analysis of the reversible, sputter-induced phase transformation which occurs on the 5-fold surface of an icosahedral Al-Cu-Fe quasicrystal. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED), X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), and ultra-violet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) data were collected as a function of annealing temperature and were used to probe surface structure, surface composition, and electronic structure, respectively.