Abstract
The bulk electronic structures of two high-order quaternary approximants of F-type icosahedral ()-Al-Pd-TM quasicrystal: Al-Pd-Cr-Fe and Al-Pd-Mo-Fe, having similar electron to atom () ratio as -Al-Pd-Mn quasicrystal, have been investigated by hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We establish the presence of a well-formed pseudogap at the Fermi level in both the approximants. The pseudogap turns out to be deeper in the approximants compared to , and this is supported by specific heat data. Modifications in the line shape of Al core-level main peak as well as the plasmon loss peaks indicate enhanced hybridization of Al and transition metal states in the approximants, which could be one of the possible reasons for their pseudogap. The absence of magnetic exchange splitting in the Fe core-level spectra establishes the nonmagnetic nature of the approximants.
- Received 30 June 2020
- Accepted 21 January 2021
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.013151
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.
Published by the American Physical Society