The unusual interfacial lattice-mismatch properties of a periodic film and a quasiperiodic substrate are investigated in the Al films grown on an Al−Co−Ni decagonal substrate. The resulting mismatch causes the formation of well-oriented nanometric single crystals of Al, satisfying the epitaxial conditions on a local scale. Total-energy calculations based on a rigid-lattice atomic model for the interface between a cubic and the decagonal surface reproduce the low-energy electron diffraction results concerning the size of the clusters, their distribution, and the details of the orientational alignment of aluminum islands. Such systems can be used in self-size-selecting growth of nanocrystals.

Atomically thin films of Gd

The quasicrystalline order at the pentagonal surface of the icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn is monitored by low-energy electron diffraction during the vacuum deposition of aluminum. We find that thick Al layers can readily be diffused into the bulk if the substrate is kept at 770 K, with no measurable changes in the surface quasicrystalline order. In the process, the surface Debye temperature ͑298 K͒ increases by more than 100 K suggesting the filling of the vacancy-rich, open-structured pentagonal surface of the Al-Pd-Mn quasicrystal with Al.

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