Annealing effect on 5-fold icosahedral (i)-Al-Pd-Mn quasicrystal surface

In the present paper, we report a comprehensive study of the effect of the annealing temperature in the ultra-high vacuum on icosahedral (i)-Al-Pd-Mn surface using low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The preparation of the i-Al-Pd-Mn surface is important for growing elemental quasiperiodic layers. The LEED pattern of i-Al-Pd-Mn shows diffraction spots with a high background after annealing at 823 K whereas sharp spots with less background are observed when annealed at 923 K. On the other hand, STM shows the presence of clusters with diameters of 5 to 40 nm and heights of 1 to 10 nm after annealing at 823 K whereas cluster-free wide and flat terraces are observed after annealing at 923 K. Thus the importance of annealing at the higher temperature of 923K is shown.