Preparation of decagonal Al-Ni-Co single quasicrystal by Czochralski method

Abstract

We constructed a partial isothermal phase diagram including a decagonal (d-) phase in the Al-Ni-Co system and determined the composition of the liquid in equilibrium with the stoichiometric d-phase. The d-phase is formed through a peritectic reaction between the B2 phase and the liquid phase. A seed d-phase prepared by selecting an optimum composition of the liquid phase was used for growing a large-scale d-quasicrystal by the Czochralski method. As a result, we have product a single decagonal quasicrystal with the size of 60 mm in length and 1 to 7 mm in diameter and the mean composition of Al72.2Ni12.1Co15.7.