Experimental studies of the plastic deformation of icosahedral quasicrystals were reviewed; particularly with regard to the stress-strain characteristics and the determination of the thermodynamic activation parameters for deformation. Investigations of the microstructures of plastically deformed samples, by means of transmission electron microscopy, yielded information concerning dislocation density, Burgers vectors and slip systems. Fracture surfaces were also investigated by means of scanning tunnelling microscopy. The results were explained in terms of the cluster sub-structure of the quasicrystal. The softening which was observed, with increasing strain, in quasicrystals was attributed to a reduction of quasicrystalline structural and chemical order due to the continuous introduction of lattice-matching rule-violations during the motion of dislocations.

Plastic Deformation of Icosahedral Quasicrystals. K.Urban, M.Feuerbacher, M.Wollgarten: Radiation Effects and Defects in Solids, 1999, 148[1-4], 65-83