The electronic spectrum of a three-dimensional quasicrystal

The electronic spectrum of an icosahedral quasicrystal with a central-atom decoration of the Amman-Mackay network is investigated in the tight-binding approximation. The quasicrystal is described as a structural limit of the optimal cubic approximants with increasing period. The electronic spectra for the first four optimal cubic approximants do not contain the hierarchical gap structure which is typical for the Cantor set of the spectrum of a one-dimensional quasicrystal. At the same time, as the order of the approximant increases, the spectrum becomes singular throughout the entire energy scale. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 67, No. 8, 557–562 (25 April 1998) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Edited by Steve Torstveit.     

Electronic spectrum of the three-dimensional Penrose lattice

The electronic spectrum of the three-dimensional Penrose lattice with “central” decoration by atoms is investigated using the tight binding model with nearest-neighbor interaction. Inverse participation ratios, higher moments of density probabilities, and fractal dimensions of the system are determined. The WFs are critical (they have a power-law dependence on the distance) at all energies in the band and are multifractal measures leading to the entire spectrum of the exponents. The results show that the system is in the critical state of the metal-insulator transition. On critical WFs, the cubic root temperature dependence of the conductivity is obtained.     

An image system and surface singularity solutions for potential flow past an elliptical cylinder

The Milne-Thomson circle theorem is extended to give a simplegeneral expression for the image system in an elliptical cylinderintroduced into an otherwise specified unbounded potential flowwhich contains no singularities in the region to be occupiedby the ellipse. This image system is used to obtain an expressionfor the corresponding source-sink surface singularity distributionon the ellipse, thus providing new benchmark test cases forsource-sink solutions as obtained numerically by a panel method.Several typical examples are given to illustrate the generaltheoretical approach.     

Distribution of silicon over sublattices in semiconducting A3B5 compounds

The stable site of Si substitutional impurities in GaAs and AlAs at T=0 K is determined on the basis of an analysis of the energy of solution of silicon, and of the energies of formation of intrinsic defects and the reaction energies of their interaction obtained by calculating the total energy of the disordered compounds. These calculations indicate that amphotericity and vacancies have an effect on the distribution of Si. At low Si concentrations, Si in GaAs is located on the sublattice of the group III element, and in AlAs, on the sublattice of the group V element. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 264–266 (February 1997)     

Critical behavior of the wave functions of icosahedral quasicrystals

The character of the localization of the wave functions of an icosahedral quasicrystal is investigated in the tight-binding approximation. It is found that the wave functions exhibit “critical behavior”: they are neither localized, as in the case of Anderson localization, nor delocalized, as in the case of Bloch states. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 64, No. 8, 559–563 (25 October 1996)     

Kinetics of two-step nucleation of crystals

When the nucleation of a stable crystalline phase directly in a supersaturated old phase is greatly retarded, the crystal nuclei might nucleate within faster-forming particles of an intermediate phase. Here we present a theoretical investigation of the kinetics of this two-step nucleation of crystals and derive general expressions for the time dependence of the number of crystals nucleated within the particles of the intermediate phase. The results reveal that crystal nucleation can be strongly delayed by the slow growth of the particles and/or by the slow nucleation of the crystals in them. Furthermore, the linear part of the time dependence of the number of nucleated crystals is determined by the formation rate of the intermediate particles. This is in contrast with the one-step nucleation of crystals when this linear part is determined by the rate of crystal nucleation directly in the old phase. Criteria are proposed for distinction between the one- and two-step nucleation mechanisms, based on the supersaturation dependence of the delay time for nucleation. The application of the theoretical approach to the analysis of experimental data on the nucleation of crystals and other ordered aggregates of protein and other soluble materials is discussed.