Energy levels and their correlations in quasicrystals

TL;DR

This paper reviews the electronic energy levels and their correlations in quasicrystals, highlighting their intermediate conductive properties and spectral characteristics compared to metals and insulators.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical analysis of spectral properties of quasicrystals using tight binding models, comparing them with disordered systems like the Anderson model.

Findings

Quasicrystals exhibit intermediate wave functions between extended and localized states.

Their energy spectrum and density of states differ from traditional crystals.

Spectral properties are similar to those of disordered systems like the Anderson model.

Abstract

Quasicrystals can be considered, from the point of view of their electronic properties, as being intermediate between metals and insulators. For example, experiments show that quasicrystalline alloys such as AlCuFe or AlPdMn have conductivities far smaller than those of the metals that these alloys are composed from. Wave functions in a quasicrystal are typically intermediate in character between the extended states of a crystal and the exponentially localized states in the insulating phase, and this is also reflected in the energy spectrum and the density of states. In the theoretical studies we consider in this review, the quasicrystals are described by a pure hopping tight binding model on simple tilings. We focus on spectral properties, which we compare with those of other complex systems, in particular, the Anderson model of a disordered metal.