Abstract Amorphous and quasicrystalline samples of Al84Mn16 and Al84V16 were produced by sputtering and melt-spinning, respectively. From X-ray and neutron-diffraction-results the total structure factors were evaluated. For amorphous as well as for quasicrystalline Al84V16 the partial SAl-Al- and SAl-V-structure factors were obtained, which yield the corresponding partial pair correlation functions, the atomic distances, and the partial coordination numbers. Also some information concerning the partial Bhatia-Thornton correlation functions could be obtained. Both the amorphous and the quasicrystalline Al-V-alloys show a linear expansion by a factor of 1.03 compared to the corresponding Al-Mn-alloy. The two amorphous alloys can be designed as isomorphous, whereas the quasicrystalline ones show pronounced deviations in the distance between unequal atoms. The shortest atomic distance in amorphous Al84V16 is 2.69 A, being,formed by Al-V-pairs with a coordination number 2. The nearest Al-Al-distance amounts to 2.84 A with a coordination number 8. The partial density-concentration correlation function clearly deviates from the hard sphere model. With the quasicrystalline specimens, the isomorphous substitution of Mn- and V-atoms is not perfect. The Al-V-correlation is split up, and this is not observed for the Al-Mn-correlation. Comparison of the amorphous and the corresponding quasicrystalline alloy shows some similarities
