Enhanced Insulatorlike Electron Transport Behavior of Thermally Tuned Quasicrystalline States of Al-Pd-Re Alloys

Low temperature annealing of insulatinglike AlPdRe icosahedral-quasicrystalline (iqc) samples has led to unexpected large changes in their transport properties, with resistivities at 0.45 K increasing from ∼1 to > 10 Ω cm, but their electronic structure is apparently unaffected. These findings, which add evidence for quasiperiodic order effects on electronic properties, as well as the unusual low-$T$ (< 4.2 K) conductivity trend noted in the thermally tuned samples, underline fundamental differences between iqc and conventional materials that exhibit electron localization.