Nonicosahedral equilibrium overlayers of icosahedral quasicrystals

We demonstrate that icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn quasicrystals can have nonicosahedrally ordered thermodynamic equilibrium overlayers. The formation of orthorhombic or decagonal equilibrium surface structures is determined by the phase equilibrium of the ternary alloy at given composition and temperature as well as by the surface acting as nucleation site. Nonequilibrium steady-state orthorhombic and hexagonal structures can also be derived with the same methodology when taking preferential evaporation into account. The results describe consistently all presently observed surface structures.