New ordered state between crystalline and amorphous in Ni-Cr particles

Abstract

A new ordered state characterized by sharp electron diffraction spots showing an arrangement with a twelvefold symmetry axis inconsistent with the existence of a Bravais lattice has been found in small particles of Ni-Cr. Electron microscopic high-resolution structure images of these particles reveal that this ordering state has no translational symmetry but has far-reaching orientational order.