title: Superior room-temperature ductility of typically brittle quasicrystals at small sizes.
abstract: 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.
authors: Department of Materials, Laboratory for Nanometallurgy, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 5, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors: Yu
authors: 0000-0002-0179-3642
authors: Y
authors: Zou
authors: Department of Materials, Laboratory of Crystallography, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 5, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors: Pawel
authors: P
authors: Kuczera
authors: Department of Materials, Laboratory for Nanometallurgy, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 5, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors: Alla
authors: A
authors: Sologubenko
authors: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto 615-8540, Japan.
authors: Takashi
authors: T
authors: Sumigawa
authors: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto 615-8540, Japan.
authors: Takayuki
authors: T
authors: Kitamura
authors: Department of Materials, Laboratory of Crystallography, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 5, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors: Walter
authors: W
authors: Steurer
authors: Department of Materials, Laboratory for Nanometallurgy, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 5, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors: Ralph
authors: R
authors: Spolenak