Surface structures of approximant phases in the Al-Pd-Mn system

Abstract

We present a study of the surface of the ${\ensuremath{\xi}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$-Al-Pd-Mn approximant phase based upon scanning tunneling microscopy and low-energy electron diffraction. Several structures are observed on two different samples grown either by the Bridgman technique or by a self-flux method, and which contain various degrees of disorder. We also describe some other complex crystalline phases that are sometimes observed on the fivefold surface of Al-Pd-Mn quasicrystalline samples after the sputter-annealing cleaning process under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. This includes the T approximant phase resulting from surface decomposition after a high-temperature annealing.