Modeling the electrical conductivity of Al-Cu-Ru icosahedral quasicrystals

On the basis of suitable experimental observations, we propose a model for the electronic structure of i-Al-Cu-Ru which allows us to obtain a closed expression for the electrical conductivity accurately describing the most characteristic features observed in the sigma (T) curves of high quality quasicrystals. By comparing the theoretical predictions with a series of experimental data, we unveil a relationship between the density of states (DOS) structure, the sample stoichiometry, and the electrical conductivity at different temperature ranges. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.