2016/08/12 by Yu Zou, Pawel Kuczera, Alla S. Sologubenko +4 · 1 citation
Materials Science · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Quasicrystal Structures and Properties #Mineralogy and Gemology Studies #Microstructure and mechanical properties
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/ncomms12261
openalex publication_date 2016/08/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The discovery of quasicrystals three decades ago unveiled a class of matter that exhibits long-range order but lacks translational periodicity. Owing to their unique structures, quasicrystals possess many unusual properties. However, a well-known bottleneck that impedes their widespread application is their intrinsic brittleness: plastic deformation has been found to only be possible at high temperatures or under hydrostatic pressures, and their deformation mechanism at low temperatures is still unclear. Here, we report that typically brittle quasicrystals can exhibit remarkable ductility of over 50% strains and high strengths of ∼4.5 GPa at room temperature and sub-micrometer scales. In contrast to the generally accepted dominant deformation mechanism in quasicrystals-dislocation climb, our observation suggests that dislocation glide may govern plasticity under high-stress and low-temperature conditions. The ability to plastically deform quasicrystals at room temperature should lead to an improved understanding of their deformation mechanism and application in small-scale devices.