ESO205A: Nature and Properties of

Materials
Course Website: http://lattice.mme.iitk.ac.in/~kbiswas/

Lecture 5

Crystallographic Planes, Packing

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 z

SC BCC FCC

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Method of finding Miller indices of a lattice plane
1. Intercepts K, L and M
2. K/a, L/b, M/c z
3. Take inverse of these numbers 00M
4. a/K, b/L, c/M
5. If fractions then multiply each of
these by lowest common multiple
(LCM), let say it is N
Or, if the three numbers have a
common factor then divide them y
with this highest common factor 0L0
(HCF)
x K00
The Miller indices of the plane are
a b c
N N N
K L M
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Miller Indices
Example #1

1) Intercepts are 1a, 1/3b, 1/2c z

2) Finding fractions in terms of
Unit cell dimensions: 1, 1/3,
3) Take inverse: 1, 3, 2
0 0 1/2
4) Since no fractions, hence no need
to multiply by LCM.
y
Miller indices of the plane are (132)
0 1/3 0

x 10 0

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 Miller indices (Contd.)
Example #2
1. Intercepts: , b,
z
2. Divide by unit cell dimensions: , 1,
3. Inverse of these: 0, 1, 0
4. No fractions, no common factors,
Therefore, Miller indices of the
indicated Plane are (010)

y
010

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 z

CV
y

Miller indices of the indicated Plane are (0 1 0)

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 What about the plane passing through the origin?

Plane passing through origin

Plane passing through origin
Intercepts 0
Plane (0 0)
Hence use this plane Intercepts 0 0
Plane ( 0)

We want to avoid infinities in Miller indices

In such cases the plane is translated by a unit distance along the non zero axis/axes
and the Miller indices are computed

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 Finding a plane corresponding to a given
Miller indices (hkl):

Just follow the reverse of the procedure to find miller indices.

Refer to the reference books.

V.Raghavan, Materials Science and Engineering, Prentice-

Hall of India, 2005

W.D.Callister, Materials Science & Engg: An Introduction,

7th Edition

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 Family of equivalent planes
Due to the symmetry of the crystal, many non parallel planes
have identical density and arrangement of lattice-points, and
therefore these are clubbed together into a family denoted by
{hkl}
For example, in a cubic crystal system
for a plane (100) the corresponding family of planes is
{100} (100), (0 10), (00 1), ( 1 00), (0 1 0), (00 1)

In tetragonal system, the

family {100} would indicate
only the planes

(100), (0 10), ( 1 00), (0 1 0)

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ESO 205A
 Point coordinates of all atom positions for a BCC unit cell

BCC: Position 5 is the

body-centered position

Start with Point

coordinates for position
number 1 as 0 0 0

Callister, Materials Science & Engg: An

Introduction, 7th Edition

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 Miller Indices of Directions
1. Choose a point on the direction
z as the origin.
2. Choose a coordinate system with
axes parallel to the unit cell edges.

3. Find the coordinates of another

y point on the direction in terms of a,
b and c

x 1a+0b+0c 1, 0, 0

4. Reduce the coordinates to smallest integers. 1, 0, 0

5. Put in square brackets [100]

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 Miller Indices of Directions
1. Choose a point on the direction
z as the origin.
2. Choose a coordinate system with
axes parallel to the unit cell edges.

3. Find the coordinates of another

y point on the direction in terms of a,
b and c

x 1a+0b+0c 1, 0, 0

4. Reduce the coordinates to smallest integers. 1, 0, 0

5. Put in square brackets [100]

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 Miller Indices of Directions

z
Miller indices of a direction
represents only the
orientation of the line
corresponding to the
y direction and not its position

x
[100]

All parallel directions have the same

Miller indices
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 Point coordinates of all atom positions for a BCC unit cell

BCC: Position 5 is the

body-centered position

Start with Point

coordinates for position
number 1 as 0 0 0

Callister, Materials Science & Engg: An

Introduction, 7th Edition

8/8/2016
 Miller Indices of Directions
1. Choose a point on the direction
z as the origin.
2. Choose a coordinate system with
axes parallel to the unit cell edges.

3. Find the coordinates of another

y point on the direction in terms of a,
b and c

x 1a+0b+0c 1, 0, 0

4. Reduce the coordinates to smallest integers. 1, 0, 0

5. Put in square brackets [100]

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Miller indices of a family of symmetry related directions
uvw = [uvw] and all other directions related to [uvw] by the
symmetry of the crystal

[001]
[001] Cubic
Tetragonal

[010]
[010]
[100] [100]

100 = [100], [010], 100 = [100], [010]

cubic
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[001] ESO 205A
tetragonal
 Family of equivalent directions:
Due to symmetry of the crystal many non parallel directions
may be equivalent, that is, the density and arrangement of
lattice-points are same along these directions. The family of
these directions is denoted as <u v w>.
For example, in cubic crystals: z

The direction indicated by black arrow

in the adjacent figure is [110]

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x
 For a cubic crystal system due to 3-fold rotational
symmetry along the body-diagonal all the directions for the
vectors along the face-diagonal are equivalent. These are
[101], [011], [110],
< 110 > [ 1 01], [ 1 10], [0 1 1], [01 1 ], [10 1 ], [01 1 ],
[ 1 1 0], [ 1 0 1 ], [0 1 1 ]

So there are, 12 equivalent directions of type [110] (along the

face-diagonals), in a cubic lattice . This family of equivalent
directions is indicated by <110>
z

y
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x
 Point coordinates of all atom positions for a BCC unit cell

BCC: Position 5 is the

body-centered position

Start with Point

coordinates for position
number 1 as 0 0 0

Callister, Materials Science & Engg: An

Introduction, 7th Edition

8/8/2016
 Miller Indices of Directions (contd.)

z
OA=1/2 a + 1/2 b + 1 c
Q z
A 1/2, 1/2, 1
[1 1 2]

y
PQ = -1 a -1 b + 1 c
y
O
-1, -1, 1
x P __
[111]
x
-ve steps are shown as bar over the number

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 Interplanar spacing: (only for crystal systems
having all the three angles = 90)
a=b=c == =90 Cubic

a=bc == =90 Tetragonal

abc == =90 Orthorhombic

1
d hkl =
2 2 2
h k l
+ +
a b c
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 Time to place atoms on lattice sites and work
with the resulting crystal .
Lattice + Basis or Motif A solid crystalline material

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Buckminsterfullerene

Do not mix up atoms with lattice points

Lattice points are infinitesimal points in
space
Atoms are physical objects
Lattice points do not necessarily lie at
the centre of atoms
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We have 112 types of atoms (& large number of molecules) and
14 Bravais lattices:

So can we put each of these atoms or

molecules on each of these lattices ?
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 Let us look at some rules:
It depends on size of the individual
atoms/ions/molecules, and type of bonding
between them.

Note: Our discussion will be about cubic crystal systems and corresponding
3 Bravais lattices, only.

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 Packing of atoms
Assumption: Model an atom as a solid hard sphere.
In this hard-sphere model, the shortest distance
between two like atoms is one diameter of the
hard sphere.

Now we ask,
What are the possible ways of packing spheres in
a regular fashion or periodic fashion?

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 Packing that leads to Simple cubic and Body
centered cubic crystals

First make a 2-D array:

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Simple cubic crystal (SCC)

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 Body centered cubic crystal (BCC)
Atom of the next plane goes here

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