Quasiperiodic layers of free-electron metals studied using electron diffraction

Author(s)
Ajay Shukla, R. S. Dhaka, S. W. D'Souza, Sanjay Singh, D. Wu, Tommaso A. Lograsso, Marian Krajci, Juergen Hafner, Karsten Horn, Sujata Roy Barman
Abstract

Using electron diffraction, we show that free-electron metals, such as sodium and potassium, form a highly regular quasiperiodic monolayer on the fivefold surface of icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn and that the quasiperiodicity propagates up to the second layer in sodium. Our photoelectron spectroscopy results show that the quasicrystalline alkali-metal adlayer does not exhibit a pseudogap near the Fermi level thought to be characteristic for the electronic structure of quasicrystalline materials. Calculations based on density functional theory provide a model structure for the quasicrystalline alkali-metal monolayer and confirm the absence of a pseudogap.

Organisation(s)
Computational Materials Physics
External organisation(s)
UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research, Iowa State University, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Journal
Physical Review B
Volume
79
No. of pages
5
ISSN
1098-0121
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.79.134206
Publication date
2009
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
1030 Physics, Astronomy
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/fdfdabc2-b431-4f34-88a2-f16478d09c49