Molecular dynamic studies of atomic jumps in d-Al–Cu–Co

The structure of quasicrystals permits phason flips: atoms may jump to equivalent alternate positions. The jumps represent the discrete representation of the phason strain in the continuum description. We have studied jumps in one of the Burkov models for decagonal Al–Cu–Co quasicrystals in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations by direct detection and with the help of correlation functions. In the decagonal structures, we find correlated jumps of two atoms within a layer. These are equivalent to flips predicted in a tiling description for the model. We will also give an overview of correlated atomic motions in different quasiperiodic layers.