The Influence of Thermal Treatment on Magnetic Moments in i-Al-Pd-Mn Quasicrystals

The influence of cooling rate on thermal strains in the quasicrystalline icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn complex metallic alloy was investigated. In general, measurements of the electronic magnetization can be used as an indirect method for determining the short-scale disorder in the crystal structure as the magnetic moments at the Mn sites are highly dependent on their local environment. Excluding the contributions of thermal vacancies and second phase precipitates by proper selection of preannealing temperatures and durations, the changes in magnetization can be ascribed to the appearance or disappearance of thermal strains in the crystal structure. It was found that water-quenching increases thermal strains irrespective of previous thermal history