CONDENSED MATTER

PHYSICS

PHYSICS PAPER A
BSc. (III) (NM and CSc.)

Harvinder Kaur
Associate Professor in Physics
PG.Govt College for Girls
 Prof. Harvinder Kaur
PG.Govt College for Girls
Sector -11, Chandigarh
 OUTLINE

 Crystal Structure
 Unit Cell
 Symmetry Operations
 Bravais Lattice
 Characteristics of Unit Cell of cubic system
 Closed packed structure
 Miller Indices
 CRYSTAL STRUCTURE

Crystal structure is a unique arrangement of atoms, molecules or ions

constructed by the infinite repetition of identical structural units(called
unit cell) in space .The structure of all crystals can be described in terms
of lattice & basis.
lattice : regular periodic arrangements of identical points in space
Basis : A group of atoms or ions
 UNIT CELL
Unit cell : A building block that can be
periodically duplicated to result in the
crystal structure, is known as the unit cell.
Unit Cell is of two types
 Primitive Unit Cell
 Non-Primitive Unit Cell

A primitive unit cell of a particular crystal

structure is the smallest possible volume
one can construct with the arrangement of
atoms in the crystal such that, when
stacked, completely fills the space. This
primitive unit cell will not always display all
the symmetries inherent in the crystal.
Primitive Unit cell has one lattice point
Non Primitive Unit cell has more than one
lattice point
 WIGNER SEITZ PRIMITIVE CELL
A Physicist Wigner Seitz gave a geometrical
way to design a primitive unit cell known as
Wigner Seitz cell

Steps for the construction of Wigner Seitz

Cell
 Draw lines to connect a given lattice point
to all nearby lattice points
 At the midpoint and normal to these lines
draw new lines or planes
 The smallest volume enclosed in this way
is Wigner- Seitz primitive cell
 SYMMETRY OPERATIONS

A symmetry operation is the one that leaves the crystal and its environment
invariant. Symmetry operations performed about a point are called point group
symmetry operations like Rotation, Reflection and Inversion

Types of Symmetry operations

 Translation Symmetry
 Rotation
 Reflection
 Inversion
 TRANSLATION SYMMETRY
The translation symmetry is
the manifestation of the order
of crystalline solids. c

Translational operator, T is defined in

terms of three fundamental vectors, a,b
and c
b
T = n1 a+n2 b+n3 c a
Translational symmetry means that
when the operator T is applied on any
point r in the crystal, the resulting point
r’ is exactly identical in all respects to
the original point r

r’= r + T= r + n1a +n2b +n3c

ROTATION

A lattice is said to possess

the rotational symmetry
about an axis if the rotation
of the lattice by some angle
 leaves it invariant. Since
the lattice remains invariant
by rotation of 2, so  must
be equal to 2/n with n an
integer. The integer n is
called the multiplicity of the
rotation axis.
REFLECTION

A lattice is said to
possess reflection
symmetry about a plane
(or a line in two
dimensions) if it is left
unchanged after being
reflected in a plane. In
other words the plane
divides the lattice into
two identical halves
which are mirror images
of each other.
INVERSION

A crystal structure
possesses an
inversion symmetry if
for each point located
at r relative to a lattice
point there exists an
identical point at –r.
Inversion is
applicable in three
dimensional lattices
only.
 BRAVAIS LATTICE
Bravais lattices :The space lattices which are invariant under one
or more point of the symmetry operation are known as Bravais
lattices. There are five Bravais lattice in two dimensions and 14
unique Bravais lattices in three dimensions
In two dimensions, there are five Bravais lattices. These are 1. Oblique
2. Rectangular 3.Centered Rectangular 4. Hexagonal 5.Square
 CRYSTAL SYSTEM
In three dimensions the 14 Bravais lattices are grouped into 7
crystal systems according to the seven types of conventional
cells. They are :

 Triclinic - 1 Bravais Lattice, least symmetric

 Monoclinic – 2 Bravais Lattices
 Orthorhombic – 4 Bravais Lattices
 Rhombohedral/Trigonal -1 Bravais Lattice
 Tetragonal – 2 Bravais Lattices
 Hexagonal – 1 Bravais Lattices
 Cubic - 3 Bravais Lattices, most symmetric
 CRYSTAL SYSTEM CONTINUED

Base-Centered Base- Face-Centered

Simple
Centered
 CRYSTAL SYSTEM CONTINUED
Rhombohedral Tetragonal
TRICLINIC

a b  c
 MONOCLINIC

a b  c

Simple Base Centered

 ORTHORHOMBIC
= β= = 90

Simple Base- Body-

Centered Centered

Face-
Centered
RHOMBOHEDRAL or TRIGONAL
 TETRAGONAL

= β= = 90

Simple Body-Centered
HEXAGONAL

= β=90,  = 120
CUBIC
 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE UNIT
CELL OF THE CUBIC SYSTEM

Volume : The volume of unit cell is a3

Atoms per unit cell : Simple Cubic - 1
Body Centered Cubic – 2
Face Centered Cubic - 4
Cooridination Number : It is equal to the number of nearest
neighbour that surrounds each atom.
Simple Cubic - 6
Body Centered Cubic – 8
Face Centered Cubic - 12
Atomic Radius (r) :
Simple Cubic - r= a/2
Body Centered Cubic – r = (3/4)a
Face Centered Cubic - r = (2/4)a

FCC
Atomic packing factor = Volume of atoms in a unit cell
-----------------------------------------
Volume of the unit cell
For Simple cubic
P.F = (1x(4/3)r3 )/a3 = /6 = 0.524

For Body centered cubic

P.F = (2x(4/3)r3 )/a3 = 3/8 = 0.680

For Face centered cubic

P.F = (4x(4/3)r3 )/a3 = (2)/6 = 0.740
CLOSE PACKED STRUCTURE
 CLOSE PACKED STRUCTURE
ABAB STACKING GIVE RISE TO HEXAGONAL CLOSED
PACKED STRUCTURE
 CLOSE PACKED STRUCTURE
ABCABC.. STACKING GIVE RISE TO FACE CENTERED
CUBIC STRUCTURE
 NaCl Crystal Structure

The NaCl lattice is face –centered cubic;

the basis consists of one Na atom and in
Cl atom separated by one-half the body
diagonal of unit cube. There are four
units of NaCl in each unit of cube, with
atoms in the positions

Cl: 000 ½½0 ½0½ 0½½

Na : ½½½ 00½ 0½0 ½00

The NaCl structure has ionic bonding with

each atom having 6 nearest neighbour and
12 next nearest neighbour. It has primitive
unit cell which is simple cubic
Atomic Packing fraction = 52.4%
 Diamond Crystal Structure

The Diamond lattice is face –centered

cubic; the basis consists of two identical
C atoms separated by one-fourth the
body diagonal of unit cube.

C: 000 ½½0 ½0½ 0½½

C : ¼¼¼ ¾¾¼ ¾¼¾ ¼¾¾

The Diamond structure has tetrahedral

bonding with each atom having 4 nearest
neighbour and 12 next nearest neighbour.
Atomic packing fraction = 34%
 MILLER INDICES
Miller indices are a notation system in crystallography for
planes in crystal (Bravais) lattices.

Steps for calculating Miller Index

 Take any lattice point as origin in the crystal lattice and erect
coordinate axis from this point in the direction of three basis vectors,
a,b and c
 Identify the intercepts on these axis made by a plane of the set of a
parallel planes of interest in terms of lattice constant
 Take the reciprocals of these intercepts and reduce these into smallest
set of integers h,k,l
 The miller Indices of a set of parallel planes – (h k l)
MILLER INDICES

Planes with different

Miller indices in cubic
crystals
EXAMPLES
EXAMPLES
Examples
 LATTICE DIRECTION
Generally the square brackets are used to indicate the
direction i.e., [h,k,l]