Metals

Comparative study of the heat capacity of icosahedral quasicrystals in solid and liquid states

A. F. Prekul^a, N. I. Shchegolikhina^a, A. B. Gaiduchenko^b, K. I. Grushevskii<sup>c

a</sup> Institute of Metal Physics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg
^b Institute of Reactor Materials and Technologies, National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute, Moscow
^c Urals State Pedagogical University, Ekaterinburg

Abstract: The heat capacity of icosahedral quasicrystals Al$_{63}$Cu$_{25}$Fe$_{12}$ and Al$_{62}$Cu$_{25.5}$Fe$_{12.5}$ has been studied at high temperatures up to 1700 K, which is by almost 400 K higher than the melting point of the material. It has been shown that the melt exhibits an excess heat capacity with respect to that determined by the Dulong–Petit law and that is a direct extension of the excess heat capacity of the solid state. It has been concluded that the excess heat capacity is related, as a whole, to the short-range order in the quasicrystal structure. This circumstance allows the identification of the orbital hybridization as the most probable mechanism of formation of the pseudogap in the electronic structure of the quasicrystals.

Received: 09.03.2011

 English version: Physics of the Solid State, 2011, 53:10, 1987–1990

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