Natural Quasicrystals: The Solar System's Hidden Secrets (SpringerBriefs in Crystallography)

This book describes the discovery of quasicrystals (icosahedral and decagonal) in an extraterrestrial rock from the Koryak Mountains of Far Eastern Russia. After a decade-long search for a natural quasicrystal, this discovery opened a new avenue in mineralogy and crystallography that could lead to further discoveries in geoscience, astronomy, condensed matter physics, and materials engineering. For the first time, minerals have been discovered that violate the symmetry restrictions of conventional crystallography. The natural occurrence of such crystals was unexpected, involving previously unknown processes. The fact that the quasicrystals were found in a meteorite formed in the earliest moments of the solar system means these processes have been active for over 4.5 billion years and have influenced the composition of the first objects to condense around the Sun. Finding quasicrystals formed in these extreme environments also informed the longstanding debate concerning the stability and robustness of quasicrystals. Recent shock experiments lend support to the hypothesis that the extraterrestrial quasicrystals formed as a result of hypervelocity impacts between objects in the early Solar system, and that they are probably less rare in the Milky Way. Acknowledgements Contents 1 Introduction References 2 What Are Quasicrystals and Why They Are so Important? References 3 Can Nature Have Beaten Us to the Punch? 3.1 Search and Discovery 3.2 Degree of Structural Perfection 3.3 Does the First Natural Quasicrystal Deserve a Name? 3.4 How Had Nature Done It? Impossible... 3.5 Farfetched Coincidences 3.6 An Unexpected Origin: They Come from Outer Space 3.7 A Conceivable Explanation for Their Formation: A Hypervelocity Impact in Outer Space 3.8 The Meteorite Parent Body 3.9 A Journey to the End of the World 3.10 New Samples and New Quasicrystals 3.11 Something Unexpected References 4 From Crystals to Quasicrystals: There’s Plenty of Room Between Them References 5 High Pressure Needed! The Crystallography of Quasicrystals at Extreme Conditions 5.1 In Situ Synchrotron X-Ray Powder Diffraction Experiments of Icosahedrite up to About 50 GPa in Both Compression and Decompression 5.2 Double-Sided Laser-Heated DAC Experiments with In Situ Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction at 42 GPa and up to About 2000 K 5.3 Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Diffraction Experiments at 5 GPa and up to 1673 K References 6 Dynamic Versus Static Pressure: Quasicrystals and Shock Experiments 6.1 Designing the Experiment to Shock-Produce Icosahedrite 6.2 Shock-Produced Icosahedrite 6.3 The Crystallography of Shock-Produced Icosahedrite 6.4 The Source of Iron in Shock-Produced Icosahedrite 6.4.1 Additional Shock Experiments 6.4.2 Shock Without Quasicrystals Formation 6.4.3 Shock with Quasicrystals Formation 6.5 Designing the Experiment to Shock-Produce Decagonite 6.6 Shock-Produced Decagonite 6.7 The Crystallography of Shock-Produced Decagonite 6.7.1 FIB Section A, Region of Interest 1 6.7.2 FIB Section A, Region of Interest 2 6.7.3 FIB Section A, Region of Interest 3 6.7.4 FIB Section B, Region of Interest 1 6.7.5 FIB Section B, Region of Interest 2 6.8 Crystallographic Remarks on Shock-Produced Decagonite 6.9 What if We Shock an Already Formed Quasicrystal? 6.10 Producing i-Phase II by Shock References 7 Why Do Quasicrystals Grow in Asteroidal Collisions? References 8 On the Stability of Quinary Quasicrystals 8.1 Hume-Rothery Phase Criterion 8.2 Cluster Line Approach References 9 Are Quasicrystals Really so Rare in the Universe? References