Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 4: Symposium SYXD: 100 years of X-ray diffraction: from the Laue experiment to new frontiers (with KR, CPP, DF, MA, MM, GP)

BP 4.2: Invited Talk

Monday, March 26, 2012, 15:30–16:00, H 0105

Why are quasicrystals quasiperiodic? — •Walter Steurer — Laboratorium für Kristallographie, ETH Zürich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 10, 8093 Zürich, Schweiz

It took more than two years until Dan Shechtman could publish his finding of a rapidly solidified Al-Mn phase with sharp Bragg reflections and icosahedral point group symmetry. His results were not accepted, initially, since they seemed to contradict fundamental laws of crystallography. A further twenty-seven years had to pass by until his discovery of quasicrystals was honoured by the Nobel Prize in 2011. This discovery was fundamental because quasiperiodic order represents a novel equilibrium state of solid matter fundamentally different from the common periodic one.

At present, stable quasicrystals have been found in more than fifty binary and ternary intermetallic systems. They show mostly decagonal or icosahedral diffraction symmetry contrary to soft quasicrystals. These are mainly qasiperiodic structures resulting from the self-assembly of either micelles in a liquid or of terpolymers with dodecagonal symmetry. The so far most promising applications of quasiperiodic structures seem to be in the field of photonic and phononic crystals.

The focus of the talk will be on the driving forces for the formation and stablization of quasiperiodic structures.