Quasicrystal structure of (Al, Zn)₄₉Mg₃₂

Abstract

Abstract We express the cubic (Al, Zn)49Mg32 structure as a periodic packing of the rhombohedra1 cells from the three-dimensional Penrose tiling, decorated by atoms. This decoration is extended to the aperiodic quasicrystal packing of the same cells to give a hypothetical structure for the recently discovered icosahedral phase with the same composition. This is the first structure of a real system which is related both to quasicrystals and to Frank-Kasper icosahedral close packings.