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quasicrystal

A quasiperiodic crystal, or, in short, quasicrystal, is a structure that is ordered but not periodic. A quasicrystalline pattern can continuously fill all available space, but it lacks translational symmetry. While crystals, according to the classical crystallographic restriction theorem, can possess only two, three, four, and six-fold rotational symmetries, the Bragg diffraction pattern of quasicrystals shows sharp peaks with other symmetry orders, for instance five-fold. The first experimental observation of what came to be known as quasicrystals was made by Dan Shechtman and coworkers in 1982 and it was reported in print two years later. Shechtman received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2011 for his findings. A team of Italian and American scientists who have studied in detail one of the few natural quasicrystals which have been found to date, have concluded that its origin is extraterrestrial.

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