Aperiodic packings of clusters obtained by projection

TL;DR

This paper explores a modified strip projection method to model quasicrystals as aperiodic packings of clusters, providing an alternative approach to traditional quasiperiodic lattice models.

Contribution

It introduces a new variant of the strip projection method for constructing models of quasicrystals as aperiodic cluster packings.

Findings

The modified method successfully generates quasiperiodic cluster packings.

Models exhibit high symmetry and robustness similar to real quasicrystals.

Potential for improved structural modeling of quasicrystals.

Abstract

Atomic-resolution electron microscope images show that a quasicrystal is a quasiperiodic packing of clusters. The outer atomic shells of multi-shell clusters occuring in quasicrystals are highly symmetric and rather robust, but some structural disorder may be present around the core. The models describing quasicrystal structure are quasiperiodic lattices containing two or more unit cells decorated by atomic clusters. We show that a modified version of the strip projection method may become an alternate way to obtain useful models.