Abstract
We report on the study of the dynamics of long wavelength phason fluctuations in the i-AlPdMn icosahedral phase using coherent x-ray scattering. When measured with a coherent x-ray beam, the diffuse intensity due to phasons presents strong fluctuations or speckles pattern. From room temperature to the speckle pattern is time independent. At the time correlation of the speckle pattern exhibits an exponential time decay, from which a characteristic time is extracted. We find that is proportional to the square of the phason wavelength, which demonstrates that phasons are collective diffusive modes in quasicrystals, in agreement with theoretical predictions.
- Received 4 September 2003
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.225501
©2003 American Physical Society