David Divincenzo - Böcker

This review volume provides the most up-to-date and authoritative description of research on icosahedral solids, which has advanced rapidly since the discovery of these unique materials in 1984. The present book, intended as a companion volume to the reprint volume on The Physics of Quasicrystals edited by P Steinhardt and S Ostlund, will be invaluable to graduate students and workers in the field as a comprehensive reference. Scientists in related fields can use it as a readable introduction to the important current problems in quasicrystals. The chapters have been written by many of the most prominent theorists and experimentalists on quasicrystals, both physicists and materials scientists, from around the world. Especially exciting are the details of the recent discovery of “perfect quasi-crystals”, new materials which promise to be an ideal form of quasiperiodic matter with little or no disorder. Other topics include: electron, X-ray and neutron quasi-crystallography, scanning tunneling microscopy studies, electronic transport experiments, quasicrystal faceting and statistical mechanics, growth rules and matching rules for quasicrystals, group theory and elasticity theory.

This review volume provides the most up-to-date and authoritative description of research on icosahedral solids, which has advanced rapidly since the discovery of these unique materials in 1984. The present book, intended as a companion volume to the reprint volume on The Physics of Quasicrystals edited by P Steinhardt and S Ostlund, will be invaluable to graduate students and workers in the field as a comprehensive reference. Scientists in related fields can use it as a readable introduction to the important current problems in quasicrystals. The chapters have been written by many of the most prominent theorists and experimentalists on quasicrystals, both physicists and materials scientists, from around the world. Especially exciting are the details of the recent discovery of “perfect quasi-crystals”, new materials which promise to be an ideal form of quasiperiodic matter with little or no disorder. Other topics include: electron, X-ray and neutron quasi-crystallography, scanning tunneling microscopy studies, electronic transport experiments, quasicrystal faceting and statistical mechanics, growth rules and matching rules for quasicrystals, group theory and elasticity theory.

Quasicrystals: The State of the Art has proven to be a useful introduction to quasicrystals for mathematicians, physicists, materials scientists, and students. The original intent was for the book to be a progress report on recent developments in the field. However, the authors took care to adopt a broad, pedagogical approach focusing on points of lasting value. Many subtle and beautiful aspects of quasicrystals are explained in this book (and nowhere else) in a way that is useful for both the expert and the student.In this second edition, some authors have appended short notes updating their essays. Two new chapters have been added. Chapter 16, by Goldman and Thiel, reviews the experimental progress since the first edition (1991) in making quasicrystals, determining their structure, and finding applications. In Chapter 17, Steinhardt discusses the quasi-unit cell picture, a promising, new approach for describing the structure and growth of quasicrystals in terms of a single, repeating, overlapping cluster of atoms.