Transmission electron microscopy study of dislocation motion in icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn

Perfect and imperfect dislocations trailing phason faults in quasi-crystals are introduced using a simplified two-dimensional aperiodic structure. Then, on the basis of observations of deformed specimens as well as in situ experiments in a transmission electron microscope, the motion of dislocations in icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn is shown to take place exclusively by climb. Under such conditions, the very high brittleness of Al-Pd-Mn at low and medium temperatures is proposed to be a consequence of the difficulty of glide, which itself appears to be an intrinsic property of the quasi-crystalline structure.