Intrinsic anisotropic magnetic, electrical, and thermal transport properties ofd-Al-Co-Ni decagonal quasicrystals

Abstract

To address the questions on the anisotropy of bulk physical properties of decagonal quasicrystals and the intrinsic physical properties of the $d$-Al-Co-Ni phase, we investigated the anisotropic magnetic susceptibility, the electrical resistivity, the thermoelectric power, the Hall coefficient, and the thermal conductivity of a $d$-Al-Co-Ni single crystal of exceptional structural quality. Superior structural order on the local scale of atomic clusters was confirmed by ${}^{27}$Al nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The measurements were performed in the 10-fold periodic direction of the structure and in three specific crystallographic directions within the quasiperiodic plane, corresponding to the 2 and 2\ensuremath{'} twofold symmetry directions and their bisector. The specific heat, being a scalar quantity, was determined as well. The measurements of the second-rank bulk tensorial properties confirm the theoretical prediction that a solid of decagonal point group symmetry should exhibit isotropic physical properties within the quasiperiodic plane and anisotropy between the in-plane and the 10-fold directions. $d$-Al-Co-Ni is an anisotropic diamagnet with stronger diamagnetism for the magnetic field in the 10-fold direction. Electrical and thermal transport is strongly metallic in the 10-fold direction but largely suppressed within the quasiperiodic plane, the main reason being the lack of translational periodicity that hinders the propagation of electrons and phonons in a nonperiodic lattice. The third-rank Hall-coefficient tensor shows sign-reversal anisotropy related to the direction of the magnetic field when applied in the 10-fold direction or within the quasiperiodic plane. The observed anisotropy is not a peculiarity of quasicrystals but should be a general feature of solids with broken translational periodicity in two dimensions.