Stability of a hard-sphere binary quasicrystal

Abstract

The stability of a quasicrystalline structure, recently obtained in a molecular dynamics simulation of rapid cooling of a binary melt, is analysed for binary hard-sphere mixtures within a density-functional approach. It is found that this quasicrystal is metastable relative to a crystalline and fluid phases for diameter ratios above 0.83. Such a trend is partially reversed for lower diameter ratios, since the quasicrystal becomes stable with respect to the crystal but does not reach a coexistence with the fluid.