The new AlPdRe icosahedral phase: Towards universal electronic behaviour for quasicrystals?

Abstract

Electronic properties have been measured for different new compositions close to Al 70.5Pd 22Re 7.5 of the icosahedral phase. They exhibit the same exceptional behaviours that were previously found for other stable quasicrystalline phases exept for the resistivity magnitude which is much higher that what is observed for the parent AlPdMn icosahedral phase. For high quality quasicrystals, the conductivity reaches the same order of magnitude as the one for doped semiconductors. The conductivity σ(T) increases rapidly with temperature. σ(T) curves appear to be parallel for all i-AlPdRe samples, although conductivity values strongly varies with the composition and the structural quality. High field magnetoconductivity indicates the presence of quantum interference effects including strong electron-electron interactions. All these features strengthen the concept of universal electronic behaviour for these complex phases, with particularly enhanced anomalous behaviour for i-AlPdRe.