In situ high-resolution transmission electron microscopy observation of the phason-strain relaxation process in an Al-Cu-Co-Si decagonal quasicrystal

Abstract

Transition process from a rational approximant state, which is regarded as containing a uniform phason strain in a quasicrystalline state, to the quasicrystalline state in the Al-Cu-Co-Si system has been observed by in situ high-temperature high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The tiling pattern changing with lapse of time in the HRTEM image has been analyzed, and the spatial and temporal variations of the phason field have been deduced. The results show that two types of processes lead the phason-strain relaxation: one is the shrink of the area with the uniform strain by shifting the boundaries and the other a continuous strain-relaxation in the area outside of the boundary. Such processes arise from a combination of collective and successive phason flips like domino-toppling along different symmetry directions.