Development of an icosahedral quasicrystal and two approximants in the Ca-Au-Sn system: syntheses and structural analyses.

The realm of Tsai-type (YCd(6)-type) quasicrystals (QCs) and their approximants (ACs) continues to expand to the east in the periodic table. The heavy tetrel Sn is now one of the major components in the new Ca(15.0(5))Au(60.0(4))Sn(25.0(2)) (atom %) icosahedral QC and in the corresponding 1/1 and 2/1 ACs. (The 2/1 AC with Yb is also established.) Single-crystal X-ray diffraction on a 1/1 AC gives the refined formula of Ca(3)Au(14.36(3))Sn(4.38(5)) in space group Im3, a = 15.131(1) Å, whereas a representative 2/1 AC gives Ca(13)Au(47.2(1))Sn(28.1(1)), Pa3 and a = 24.444(1) Å. Both ACs contain five-shell multiply endohedral triacontahedral clusters as the common building blocks, as in the parent structure of YCd(6). The 2/1 AC also contains four Ca(2)-dimer-centered prolate rhombohedra (PRs) in the unit cell. The long-range order between triacontahedra and PRs in the 2/1 AC is the same as those in Bergman-type 2/1 ACs. A TB-LMTO-ASA calculation on an ideal 1/1 AC model reveals a shallow pseudogap in the total densities-of-states data around the Fermi energy, as expected. The depth of the pseudogap is considerably enhanced through interactions between the Ca 3d states and s and p states of Au and Sn.