THE THUE-MORSE APERIODIC CRYSTAL, A LINK BETWEEN THE FIBONACCI QUASICRYSTAL AND THE PERIODIC CRYSTAL

Abstract

The electronic spectrum and eigenstates of a one-dimensional aperiodic Thue-Morse crystal isstudied with an on-site tight-binding model. The relation between the constructing elements andthe hierarchical splitting of the bands into subbands is analysed. The eigenstates are shown to be much more similar to those of a periodic crystal than those of a Fibonacci quasicrystal. We thus claim that the Thue-Morse aperiodic crystal is a link between the Fibonacci quasicrystal and theperiodic crystal, and that the study of non-Fibonaccian aperiodic crystals is a promising steptowards the desired unified theory of disordered, aperiodic and periodic systems. Since the experimentally studied MBE-grown aperiodic crystals typically has 5% fluctuation in layer thickness, we also investigate the density of states and eigenstates for a model system withfluctuating site-energies.