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Formation of a single quasicrystal upon collision of multiple grains
- Source :
- Nature Communications, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2021), Nature Communications
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Nature Portfolio, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Quasicrystals exhibit long-range order but lack translational symmetry. When grown as single crystals, they possess distinctive and unusual properties owing to the absence of grain boundaries. Unfortunately, conventional methods such as bulk crystal growth or thin film deposition only allow us to synthesize either polycrystalline quasicrystals or quasicrystals that are at most a few centimeters in size. Here, we reveal through real-time and 3D imaging the formation of a single decagonal quasicrystal arising from a hard collision between multiple growing quasicrystals in an Al-Co-Ni liquid. Through corresponding molecular dynamics simulations, we examine the underlying kinetics of quasicrystal coalescence and investigate the effects of initial misorientation between the growing quasicrystalline grains on the formation of grain boundaries. At small misorientation, coalescence occurs following rigid rotation that is facilitated by phasons. Our joint experimental-computational discovery paves the way toward fabrication of single, large-scale quasicrystals for novel applications.<br />Quasicrystals exhibit long-range order without periodicity. The authors report an approach for quasicrystal fabrication and show through in situ imaging and corresponding simulations the formation of a single decagonal quasicrystal arising from coalescence of multiple quasicrystals in a liquid.
- Subjects :
- Coalescence (physics)
Condensed Matter - Materials Science
Multidisciplinary
Materials science
Misorientation
Condensed matter physics
Science
General Physics and Astronomy
Quasicrystal
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
FOS: Physical sciences
General Chemistry
Article
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Molecular dynamics
Phase transitions and critical phenomena
Structure of solids and liquids
Grain boundary
Crystallite
Thin film
Translational symmetry
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20411723
- Volume :
- 12
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Nature Communications
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....502d2e62eff8c054e828c116aabfe4e3