Short- and long-range ordering during the phase transition of the Zn6Sc 1/1 cubic approximant.

Using in situ x-ray scattering and synchrotron radiation, we have experimentally elucidated the mechanism of the cubic to monoclinic phase transition in the Zn6Sc 1/1 approximant to an icosahedral quasicrystal. The high-temperature cubic phase is described as a bcc packing of a large Tsai-type icosahedral cluster whose center is occupied by an orientationally disordered Zn4 tetrahedron. A clear monoclinic distortion has been found to take place within 2 K around Tc = 157 K, in excellent agreement with the observed anomalies in the electrical resistivity and heat capacity. Also, a rapid variation of the super-structure reflection intensity is observed. The low-temperature monoclinic phase, as determined by single-crystal x-ray diffraction at 40 K, has been confirmed to consist of ordered Zn4 tetrahedra, oriented in an anti-parallel way along the [[Formula: see text]] direction. Above Tc, a diffuse scattering signal is observed at the position of the super-structure reflections, which evidences that a short-range ordering of the Zn4 tetrahedra takes place. In a way similar to a second-order phase transition, the correlation length describing this short-range ordering increases rapidly when the temperature diminishes and almost diverges when the temperature is close to Tc, going from 200 Å at 220 K to reach the very large value of 1200 Å at 161 K. Finally, using single-crystal x-ray diffraction, the atomic structure of the low-temperature monoclinic super-structure (space group C2/c) could be solved. The ordering of the Zn4 tetrahedra is accompanied by a strong distortion of the surrounding shells.