Premium
Reciprocal‐space imaging of a real quasicrystal. A feasibility study with PILATUS 6M
Author(s) -
Weber Thomas,
Deloudi Sofia,
Kobas Miroslav,
Yokoyama Yoshihiko,
Inoue Akihisa,
Steurer Walter
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of applied crystallography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.429
H-Index - 162
ISSN - 1600-5767
DOI - 10.1107/s0021889808014386
Subject(s) - quasicrystal , reciprocal lattice , bragg's law , icosahedral symmetry , physics , optics , synchrotron radiation , scattering , quasiperiodic function , reflection (computer programming) , diffraction , synchrotron , condensed matter physics , chemistry , crystallography , programming language , computer science
How many of the theoretically densely distributed Bragg reflections of a quasicrystal can be observed employing an area detector and synchrotron radiation? How does the reflection density of a real quasicrystal change as a function of exposure time, and what is the minimum distance between reflections? What does the distribution of diffuse scattering look like? To answer these questions, the Bragg reflection density of a perfect icosahedral quasicrystal with composition Al 64 Cu 23 Fe 13 was measured employing a novel type of single‐photon‐counting X‐ray pixel detector, PILATUS 6M, which allows noise‐free data collection with the extraordinarily large dynamic range of 20 bit. The reflection density was found to be two orders of magnitude lower than expected for a strictly quasiperiodic structure. Moreover, diffuse scattering reflects significant structural disorder, breaking six‐dimensional F ‐lattice symmetry. These findings have some implications for the interpretation of physical properties.