Nanoepitaxy on quasicrystal surfaces

Abstract

In film growth on quasicrystalline surfaces, the epitaxy-imposed ordering cannot compete with the stable bulk phases of thick films due to absence of translational order in the structure of the substrate. Energetically, this renders the formation of crystalline domains in the native structure of the film material more favorable while their global orientation is prescribed by the quasicrystalline order. We present experimental results on the dissociative chemisorption of oxygen on the decagonal surface of Al$_{70}$Co$_{15}$Ni$_{15}$ as well as molecular-dynamics simulations of the diffusion of adatoms on the surface of the partially covered substrate.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures. Applied Surface Science (2009) in pres

Growth and structure of ultrathin alumina films on the (1 1 0) surface ofγ-Al4Cu9complex metallic alloy

“…In most cases, the oxide layer has been found to be amorphous. However, following high temperature oxidation of the pentagonal surface of i-Al-Pd-Mn and the 10-fold-symmetry surface of the decagonal Al-Co-Ni, the formation of nano-domains of hexagonal aluminium oxide thin layers aligned along a two-fold or five-fold symmetry direction of the substrate respectively has been reported [8][9][10]. The limit in the lateral size of the domains was ascribed to the lack of translational order in the structure of the quasicrystalline substrates used in these studies.…”