Nanostructuration of i-Al₆₄Cu₂₃Fe₁₃ quasicrystals produced by arc-furnace

The Al₄₆Cu₂₃Fe₁₃ quasicrystal phase, prepared by arc-melting and nanostructured using high energy ball milling technique, was studied employing X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, ferromagnetic resonance and electric transport measurements. Fe local environments were studied by Mössbauer spectroscopy. The resistivity ratio R(4.2 K)/R(300 K) is within the expected values commonly observed in an icosahedral phase. In general, the experimental results show that an appropriate heat treatment of the as-cast alloy prepared by arc-melting makes possible to obtain good quasicrystal samples. On the other hand, for milling time longer than five hours, the average grain-size of quasicrystal phase reduces, but it preserves Fe local atomic orders. It is also observed that the quasicrystalline sample decomposes in an iron rich nano-quasicrystalline phase and a ε-Al₂Cu₃ phase. Electric transport measurements show that at low temperatures the nano-quasicrystalline samples behave strongly different to their solid counterparts, an effect attributed to a long-range order reduction and an increasing of grain boundary regions. The presence of local magnetic moments in the nanostructured sample is also discussed.