Atomic self-diffusion in dodecagonal quasicrystals

A molecular dynamics study of atomic self-diffusion in Frank-Kasper type dodecagonal quasicrystals is presented. It is found that the quasicrystal-specific flip mechanism for atomic diffusion, predicted by Kalugin and Katz, indeed occurs in this system. However, in order to be effective, this mechanism needs to be catalyzed by other defects, such as half-vacancies. For this reason, it is difficult to distinguish from standard vacancy diffusion.