Tile Hamiltonians for Decagonal Phases

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A tile Hamiltonian (TH) replaces the actual atomic interactions in a quasicrystal with effective interactions between and within tiles. We study Al-Co-Ni and Al-Co-Cu decagonal quasicrystals described as decorated Hexagon-Boat-Star (HBS) tiles using ab-initio methods. A dominant term in the TH counts the number of H, B and S tiles, favoring tilings of H and B only. In our model for Al-Co-Cu, chemical ordering of Cu and Co along tile edges defines tile edge arrowing. Unlike the edge arrowing of Penrose matching rules, however, the energetics for Al-Co-Cu do not force quasiperiodicity. Energetically favored structures resemble crystalline approximants to which the actual quasicrystalline compounds transform at low temperature.