0000000000285035
AUTHOR
Hans-rainer Trebin
Molecular dynamics studies of 3D quasicrystals
Abstract The thermodynamic behaviour of monatomic and diatomic models of three-dimensional icosahedral quasicrystals has been studied in NVT and NPT ensembles using molecular dynamics simulations with atoms interacting via Lennard-Jones potentials. We also report on a microcanonical MD simulation of decagonal Al 65 Cu 20 Co 15 quasicrystals where an experimentally determined binary model has been used. To obtain stability in this latter case it is necessary to endow the atoms with effective pair potentials. No transitions to crystalline or amorphous phases were found for diatomic models. Monatomic models, however, display a certain stability only in the low-temperature region. In the range …
Intrinsic stability of quasicrystals under the generation of Frenkel pairs
Under irradiation metastable quasicrystals undergo a phase transition to an amorphous state. This transition can be reversed by annealing. As in normal crystalline materials the phase transition is considered to be triggered by generation and recombination of vacancies and interstitial atoms (Frenkel pairs). We have classified the possible Frenkel defects in a metastable monatomic quasicrystal with respect to geometric and energetic properties. With numerical simulation we have studied the behaviour of the quasicrystal under a load of Frenkel defects for various defect concentrations. We find three ranges of behaviour: up to 5% defects per atom the structure remains icosahedral, in a middle…
Nucleation of quasicrystals by rapid cooling of a binary melt: A molecular-dynamics study.
A binary Lennard-Jones fluid was cooled in an NPT ensemble by molecular-dynamics simulations. Depending on the cooling rate, we find a sharp transition from the melt either into a disordered structure or into a phase of icosahedral long-range order. We also observed a decagonal phase.