New Stable Icosahedral Quasicrystal in Mg-Pd-Al System

Abstract

A thermodynamically stable icosahedral phase (I-phase) has been found to form in Mg-Pd-Al alloys in the compositional range 13 to 15 at%Pd and 42 to 44 at%Al. The X-ray diffraction measurements have shown that the I-phase is of the Frank-Kasper type (FK-type), as in Al-Li-Cu and Mg-Ga-Zn alloys. The stability of the I-phase has been confirmed by the result that it shows no transformation by annealing for 40 h at temperatures just below the melting point. The electrons per atom ratio (e/a) for the Mg-Pd-Al I-phase is ∼2.15, which is nearly equal to those for other stable FK-type I-phases. This result suggests that the energy-band structure plays a dominant role in the formation of I-phases.