Quasicrystals: the concept of solid-state structure born from the fusion of sciences

―From discovery to the latest research trends―

Abstract

Quasicrystal is a concept born from the fusion of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. In the 40 years since the first report on quasicrystals, laboratories aiming to integrate physics, chemistry, and materials engineering have been involved in the fusion of metals and semiconductors, and more recently in materials informatics, which was born from the fusion of data and materials sciences. The concept of metallic-covalent bonding conversion was born, a unified picture of icosahedral cluster solids was constructed, a design guideline for improving thermoelectric performance: weakly bonded rigid heavy clusters was proposed, and the existence of quasicrystalline semiconductors was proposed. We are trying to find out whether it exists or not.