Hierarchical porosity in real quasicrystals

Abstract

The structure of real icosahedral quasicrystals of the Al-Pd-Mn system can be described in terms of a hierarchical self-similar packing of overlapping atomic clusters. An inflation scale factor tau 3 preserves long-range order but generates a hierarchy of holes and a fractal structure. Such holes have actually been observed and they might be of basic importance in the growth mechanism and stability of quasicrystals.