Search for long-range magnetic order in quasicrystals

Abstract

Classification of solids is based upon the order and rotational symmetry of their atomic arrangements. Until 1984, solids were either crystalline or amorphous. In crystalline compounds, atoms or atomic clusters are ordered periodically (in a repeating pattern), and the rotational symmetries of such compounds are restricted to two-, three-, four-, and six-fold symmetry axes. Thus, five-fold or 10-fold symmetry axes, for instance, are forbidden. In amorphous compounds, the atomic arrangements are essentially disordered with no precise rotational symmetry. Here Zbigniew M. Stadnik, Professor at the University of Ottawa in the Department of Physics, looks at the magnetic order in quasicrystals.