Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2011
Historically, non-periodic models have usually found preference over microcrystalline ones for describing the structure of amorphous materials. Nevertheless, truly microcrystalline materials do exist, and the characteristic, monotonically decreasing isothermal calorimetric signal associated with the growth of the grains, can sometimes be used to identify them unambiguously. An example of the identification of the micro-quasicrystalline structure of some sputtered aluminum-transition metal alloys is discussed.