Stability of three-dimensional icosahedral quasicrystals in multi-component systems

Abstract: The relative stability of three-dimensional icosahedral quasicrystals in multi-component systems has been investigated based on a coupled-mode Swift-Hohenberg model with two-length-scales. A recently developed projection method, which provides a unified numerical framework to study periodic crystals and quasicrystals, is used to compute free energies to high accuracy. Compared with traditional approaches, the advantage of the projection method has been also discussed detailedly. A rigorous and systematical computation demonstrates that three-dimensional icosahedral quasicrystal, two-dimensional decagonal quasicrystal are stable phases in such a simple multi-component coupled-mode Swift-Hohenberg model. The result extends the multiple length-scales interaction mechanism which can stabilize quasicrystals from single-component to multi-component systems.