Quasicrystals are a new form of the solid state which differ from the other two known forms, crystalline and amorphous, by possesing a new type of long-range translational order, called quasiperiodicty, and a noncrystallographic orientational order. This book provides an up-to-date description of the unusual physical properties of these new materials. Emphasis is placed on the experimental results, which are compared with those of the corresponding crystalline and amorphous systems and discussed in terms of modern theoretical models. Written by leading authorities in the field, the book will be of great use both to experienced workers in the field and to uninitiated graduate students.

A comprehensive and up-to-date review, covering the broad range of this outstanding class of materials among intermetallic alloys. Starting with metallurgy and characterization, the authors continue on to structure and mathematical modeling. They use this basis to move on to dealing with electronic, magnetic, thermal, dynamic and mechanical properties, before finally providing an insight into surfaces and thin films. The authors belong to a research program on quasicrystals, sponsored by the German Research Society and managed by Hans-Rainer Trebin, such that most of the latest results are pre.

The book provides an introduction to all aspects of the physics of quasicrystals. The chapters, each written by an expert in this field, cover quasiperiodic tilings and the modeling of the atomic structure of quasicrystals. The electronic density of states and the calculation of the electronic structure play a key role in this introduction, as does an extensive discussion of the atomic dynamics. The study of defects in quasicrystals by high resolution electron microscopy and the computer simulations of defects and fracture in decorated tilings are important subjects for the application of these aperiodic crystals.

Quasicrystals form a new state of solid matter beside the crystalline and the amorphous. The positions of the atoms are ordered, but with noncrystallographic rotational symmetries and in a nonperiodic way. The new structure induces unusual physical properties, promising interesting applications. This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review and presents most recent research results, achieved by a collaboration of physicists, chemists, material scientists and mathematicians within the Priority Programme "Quasicrystals: Structure and Physical Properties" of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). Starting from metallurgy, synthesis and characterization, the authors carry on with structure and mathematical modelling. On this basis electronic, magnetic, thermal, dynamic and mechanical properties are dealt with and finally surfaces and thin films.

From tilings to quasicrystal structures and from surfaces to the n-dimensional approach, this book gives a full, self-contained in-depth description of the crystallography of quasicrystals. It aims not only at conveying the concepts and a precise picture of the structures of quasicrystals, but it also enables the interested reader to enter the field of quasicrystal structure analysis. Going beyond metallic quasicrystals, it also describes the new, dynamically growing field of photonic quasicrystals. The readership will be graduate students and researchers in crystallography, solid-state physics, materials science, solid- state chemistry and applied mathematics.

In 1984 physicists discovered a monster in the world of crystallography, a structure that appeared to contain five-fold symmetry axes, which cannot exist in strictly periodic structures. Such quasi-periodic structures became known as quasicrystals. A previously formulated theory in terms of higher dimensional space groups was applied to them and new alloy phases were prepared which exhibited the properties expected from this model more closely. Thus many of the early controversies were dissolved. In 2011, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to Dan Shechtman for the discovery of quasicrystals. This primer provides a descriptive approach to the subject for those coming to it for the first time. The various practical, experimental, and theoretical topics are dealt with in an accessible style. The book is completed by problem sets and there is a computer program that generates a Penrose lattice.

The aim of this book is to acquaint the reader with what the author regards as the most basic characteristics of quasicrystals — structure, formation and stability, properties — in relationship with the applications of quasicrystalline materials.Quasicrystals are fascinating substances that form a family of specific structures with strange physical and mechanical properties as compared to those of metallic alloys. This, on the one hand, is stimulating intensive research to understand the most basic properties of quasicrystals in the frame of a generalized crystallography. On the other hand, these properties open the way to technological applications, demonstrated or potential, mostly regarding energy savings.This valuable book discusses those various facets of quasicrystals in five chapters, ending with the author's own interpretation of the properties with respect to their unique structure.