Crystallographic Planes

Crystal planes come from the structures known as crystal lattices. These

lattices are three dimensional patterns that consist of symmetrically organized
atoms intersecting three sets of parallel planes. These parallel planes are
"crystal planes" and are used to determine the shape and structure of the unit
cell and crystal lattice.
 Crystallographic Planes
• The layers of atoms or the planes along which atoms are
arranged are known as crystallographic planes.
• The relation of set of planes to the axes of unit cell is
designated by Miller indices.
One corner of the unit cell is considered as the origin of
the space coordinates.
• Any set of the plane is identified by the reciprocals of its
intersections with these coordinates.
• If plane is parallel to the axis, it intersects it at infinity.
 Crystallographic Planes
• Miller Indices: Reciprocals of the (three) axial intercepts
for a plane, cleared of fractions & common multiples. All
parallel planes have same Miller indices.

• Algorithm 
1a. If the plane passes through the selected origin, choose another
plane or move the origin.

1b. Read off intercepts of plane with axes in

terms of a, b, c

2. Take reciprocals of intercepts

3. Reduce to smallest integer values

4. Enclose in parentheses, no commas i.e., (hkl) 8

 Crystallographic Planes
z

example a b c c
1. Intercepts 1 1 
2. Reciprocals 1/1 1/1 1/
1 1 0
y
3. Reduction 1 1 0
a b
4. Miller Indices (110) x
z
example a b c
1. Intercepts 1/2   c
2. Reciprocals 1/½ 1/ 1/
2 0 0
3. Reduction 1 0 0 y
4. Miller Indices (100) a b

9
 Crystallographic Planes
z

example a b c
c
1. Intercepts 1/2 1 3/4 
2. Reciprocals 1/½ 1/1 1/¾
2 1 4/3  y

3. Reduction 6 3 4 a b

x
4. Miller Indices (634)

Family of Planes {hkl}

Ex: {100} = (100), (010), (001), (100), (010), (001)

10
Intercepts → 1   Intercepts → 1 1 
Plane → (100) Plane → (110)
Family → {100} → 3 Family → {110} → 6

Intercepts → 1 1 1
Plane → (111)
Family → {111} → 8
(Octahedral plane)
(hkl) represent a plane.
[hkl] represent a direction
Miller Directions