Electronic-Transport Properties of Al-Cu-Fe Thin Films

Amorphous samples of Al-Cu-Fe were crystallized to the icosahedral phase under the control of electrical conductivity and thermopower at a rather small temperature of T=720 K. A comparison between different annealing states of the amorphous and the resulting quasicrystalline phase done on the same sample shows aston-ishing parallels in conductivity and large differences in thermopower.