The surface structure of icosahedral Al68Pd23Mn9 measured by STM and LEED

Abstract

For the first time the surface structure of an icosahedral quasicrystal has been successfully investigated in Ultra-High Vacuum (UHV) by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) and Low-Energy Electron Diffraction (LEED). After cleaning an i-Al68Pd23Mn9 sample in UHV by cycles of ion-sputtering and annealing at temperatures close to the melting point atomically flat terraces are observed by STM. Successive step heights show quasiperiodic order according to the Fibonacci chain. The normals of these terraces are parallel to a five-fold axis as revealed by highly resolved STM images. On the terraces five-fold stars and pentagonal holes are observed. Their orientation is the same on all terraces investigated. Additionally to this long-range orientational order, a high degree of quasiperiodic order is found for the pentagonal holes. This indicates that the quasiperiodic order of this highly ordered and thermodynamically stable quasicrystal extends even up to the surface. Both the step heights and the distances between the pentagonal holes well agree with the values derived from a structural model of this material. Five-fold symmetric LEED patterns can be analysed by means of the Fourier transform of a Fibonacci pentagrid as suggested by the STM data. The analysis yields the same line separations within the pentagrid as deduced from the STM experiments.