Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2011
Binary and ternary aluminum based amorphous precursor films have been prepared by the sequential-flash evaporation technique in the case of Al-Mn, Al-Fe, Al-Cu-Fe and Al-Pd-Mn and by co-sputtering in the case of Al-Pd-Re. For well adjusted compositions and an appropriate heat treatment films can be transformed into polycrystalline single phased quasicrystals for all of the systems mentioned above. The transition can be monitored by in situ measurements of electronic transport properties. The structure factors as a function of composition and annealing state has been measured by electron diffraction. They show a unique behavior if the composition is chosen to that of the related quasicrystal. For high annealing states of the amorphous phase the structure factor becomes more intense at the peak positions of the following i-phase. This is interpreted as a unique radial near- and medium-range order of both the i-phase and its amorphous precursor. The final transformation into the quasicrystal is sharp for Al-Cu-Fe and is broad in the case of Al-Pd-Mn and Al-Pd-Re. The transport properties of the resulting single phased films are similar to that of the related bulk samples and allow systematic studies as a function of composition. Some of the i-Al-Pd-Re films are on the insulating side of the metal-insulator transition.