Magnetic and electrical properties of a new type Zn–Mg–Sc icosahedral quasicrystal

The magnetic susceptibility of the Zn–Mg–Sc icosahedral quasicrystals, which have a new type of atomic cluster structure, was found to increase with a rise in temperature from 100 to 300 K. The increase of the susceptibility was accounted for by the temperature dependent term of the Pauli paramagnetism, which indicated a pseudogap in the electronic density of states (DOS) near the Fermi energy. This new type quasicrystal may be stabilized by the pseudogap in the DOS, as in various stable icosahedral quasicrystals discovered to date. We measured the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity. In the temperature range between 2 and 300 K, the resistivity increased by 0.08% with a decrease in temperature. These measurements were analyzed on the basis of the weak localization theory of electrons in quasicrystals.