Experimental Observation of Quasicrystal Growth

The growth of an Al-Ni-Co decagonal quasicrystal was observed by in situ, high-temperature, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The tiling patterns extracted from a series of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy images were analyzed on the basis of the high-dimensional description of quasicrystalline structures. The analyses indicated that the growth proceeded with frequent error-and-repair processes. The final, grown structure showed nearly perfect quasicrystalline order. Our observations suggest that the repair process by phason relaxation, rather than local growth rule, plays an essential role in the construction of ideal quasicrystalline order in real materials.