The Properties and Applications of Quasicrystals

Abstract

In being relatively poor conductors of heat and electricity, quasicrystalline alloys, most of which contain about 70 atomic percent of aluminium, do not behave as one might expect. Other interesting properties involving, for instance, adhesion, corrosion, friction, and hard­ ness, suggest that the industrial future of quasicrystals is promising while the present is already bearing its fruits, notably in coating applications. Quasicrystals are materials having a new type of long-range order such that their diffraction patterns show Bragg reflections revealing symmetries which are incompatible with periodicity [