A. P. Tsai | Searcharxiv

arXiv2017

Direct observation of heterogeneous valence state in Yb-based quasicrystalline approximants

We study the electronic structure of Tsai-type cluster-based quasicrystalline approximants, Au$_{64}$Ge$_{22}$Yb$_{14}$ (AGY-I), Au$_{63.5}$Ge$_{20.5}$Yb$_{16}$ (AGY-II), and Zn$_{85.4}$Yb$_{14.6}$ (Zn-Yb), by means of photoemission spectroscopy. In the valence band hard x-ray photoemission spectra of AGY-II and Zn-Yb, we separately observe a fully occupied Yb 4$f$ state and a valence fluctuation derived Kondo resonance peak, reflecting two inequivalent Yb sites, a single Yb atom in the cluster center and its surrounding Yb icosahedron, respectively. The fully occupied 4$f$ signal is absent in AGY-I containing no Yb atom in the cluster center. The results provide direct evidence for a heterogeneous valence state in AGY-II and Zn-Yb.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1999

A quasi-unit cell model for Al-Ni-Co Ideal Quasicrystal based on clusters with broken 10-fold symmetry

We present new evidence supporting the quasi-unit cell description of the $Al_{72}Ni_{20}Co_{8}$ decagonal quasicrystal which shows that the solid is composed of repeating, overlapping decagonal cluster columns with broken 10-fold symmetry. We propose an atomic model which gives a significantly improved fit to electron microscopy experiments compared to a previous proposal by us and to alternative proposals with 10-fold symmetric clusters.

cond-mat↗