Local atomic environments in periodic and aperiodic Al-Mn alloys

Abstract

We have applied Wigner-Seitz constructs to several known crystal phases of Al-Mn and to two independent descriptions of the Al-Mn icosahedral phase for which all the atomic positions are available. The resulting measures of local atomic environments for the icosahedral phase are in agreement with one another and with experiment: broad distributions in site metrics and volumes of both Mn and Al sites, none of which have local icosahedral point symmetry, and a similar radial distribution function.