The diffuse scattering located close to Bragg reflections has been studied as a function of the temperature on a single grain of the AlPdMn icosahedral phase. Between 600°C and 800°C there is a reversible and continuous transition. When the temperature increases, the diffuse scattering diminishes whereas high- Q ⊥ reflections have their intensity increased. All results are well interpreted within the elasticity theory of quasi-crystals: the changes in diffuse scattering shape and intensity when lowering the temperature are due to a softening of the K 1 phason elastic constant. The time decay of these long-wavelength phason fluctuations is larger than 5 ns.
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Boudard et al. (1996) studied this question.