Low temperature elastic and anelastic properties of an i-AlPdMn single quasicrystal

The complete elastic constant tensor, i.e. the real and imaginary parts Cijkl and Qijkl−1, of icosahedral AlPdMn quasicrystal were measured at megahertz frequencies, from 4 K to room temperature, using electromagnetic acoustic resonance. The temperature dependence of Cijkl was analyzed using an Einstein oscillator model and a quasiharmonic approximation. The overall mode Grüneisen parameter γ   is 2.0, in agreement with a previous thermal expansion measurement. Internal friction Qijkl−1 behaved normally throughout the measured temperature range. These results suggest that the lattice anharmonicity of i-AlPdMn is similar to usual crystalline materials despite its significant difference in structure.