Co nanocrystallites on an icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn quasicrystal

Recently, we reported that submonolayer deposits of Co onto the pentagonal surface of i-Al-Pd-Mn form a stable intermetallic compound of five CsCl-type AlCo domains rotated by 72 degrees with respect to each other. For multilayer deposition, Co was found to grow epitaxially on the AlCo domains in a body-centred cubic structure. Here we discuss this conclusion in more detail and report the formation of atomic rows at the surface for deposits larger than three monolayers. The details of the growth resulting in ordered nanostructures are extracted from low-energy electron diffraction investigations. Surface magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements confirm the decrease in the domain size for thicker films.