Millimeter-sized single Icosahedral quasicrystal of Zn-Mg-Sc alloy

Millimeter-sized single icosahedral quasicrystals were produced by slow cooling from melt in Zn0.5Mg4.2Sc15.3 alloy. The alloy ingots were melted at 835degreesC for 1 h and then slowly cooled to an annealing temperature of 750degreesC at the cooling rates of 28 K/h and 60 K/h. Scanning electron microscopy, electron back-scattered diffraction. and selected-area electron diffraction and powder X-ray diffraction experiments repealed that the single quasicrystal has a P-type (primitive-type) structure with a six-dimensional lattice parameter of 0.7110 nm, and that the structural quality of the quasicrystal is high.