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Solid State Physics (SSP-I)

Solid

A solid is a state of matter in which the particles (atoms) are arranged in such a
way that their shape and volume are relatively stable. The atoms are packed
together much closer than the particles in a gas or liquid. The reason a solid has a
rigid shape is that the atoms or molecules are tightly connected via chemical
bonds. The bonding may produce either a regular lattice (as seen in ice, metals, and
crystals) or an amorphous shape (as seen in glass or amorphous carbon). A solid is
one of the four fundamental states of matter, along with liquids, gases, and plasma.

Solid Structure

Examples of Solids

The matter with a defined shape and volume is solid. There are many examples:

 A brick
 A chunk of aluminum metal (or any metal at room temperature except
mercury)
 Diamond (and most other crystals) .

Solid State Physics

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Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids. It is the largest branch of
condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the large-scale properties
of solid materials result from their atomic-scale properties. Thus, solid-state physics
forms a theoretical basis of materials science.

Classification of Solids

i. Crystalline Solids
Crystalline solids are those solids which are well ordered and having definite
and periodic arrangement of atoms in 3-dimensional space.
Example
Diamond
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Crystalline Solids are further divided into Single crystals.

Single Crystal
It is a crystal which is composed of only one material and there are no grain
boundaries in it. A Single Crystal has an atomic structure that repeats
periodically across its whole volume. Even at infinite length scales, each atom
is related to every other equivalent atom in the structure by translational
symmetry.
Example

ii. Polycrystalline Solids

Polycrystalline are solids that are composed of many crystals called
crystallites of varying size and orientation. Crystallites are also referred to as
grains separated by grain boundaries. The grains are usually 100 nm – 100
microns in diameter.
Example
All common metals and ceramics etc.
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iii. Amorphous Solids

An amorphous solid is any non-crystalline solid in which the atoms or
molecules are not arranged in a regular pattern in a 3-dimensional space.
Example
Such solids include glass, plastic etc.

Lattice
A 2D translationally periodic arrangement of of an array points in space is
called a Lattice.

Lattice

Crystal Lattice
A 3D translationally periodic arrangement of an array of points in space
which represents atoms, ions or molecules of a crystal is called a Crystal
Lattice. These arrays of points are called lattice points.
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Crystal Lattice

Basis or Motif
An atom or a group of atoms associated with each lattice point is known as
basis or motif.

Crystal=lattice + basis

Lattice: the underlying periodicity of the crystal.

Basis: atom or group of atoms associated with each lattice points
Lattice: how to repeat
Motif: what to repeat
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Unit Cell
The smallest repeating unit of a crystal, which when repeated periodically
gives us the whole crystal structure is known as unit cell. It is the building
block of a crystal structure.
In three dimensions the unit cell is any parallelepiped whose vertices are
lattice points, in two dimensions it is any parallelogram whose vertices are
lattice points.
Types
There are two distinct type of the unit cell;
1. Primitive Unit Cell
2. Non-Primitive Unit Cell

1) Primitive Unit Cell

Primitive unit cells are those which contain only one lattice point. For
example, in 2D, each primitive unit cell joins four lattice points, each
of which counts for 1/4 because every lattice point is shared among
four-unit cells. Such Crystal has a smallest area in 2D and smallest
volume in 3D.

Primitive Unit Cell

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Example
Simple Cubic (SC) is primitive unit cell.
In the primitive cubic unit cell, the atoms are only located on the
corners. That means 8 atoms are located on 8 corners of the lattice.
Each atom located on the corner contributes 1/8th of the original
volume of the cell. So, since there are total 8 atoms in a primitive
cubic unit cell, the total number of atoms in the primitive cubic unit
cell,

So there is only 1 atom in a primitive cubic unit cell.

Primitive Cubic Unit Cell

2) Non-Primitive Unit Cell

Non-primitive unit cells contain additional lattice points, either on a
face of the unit cell or within the unit cell, and so have more than one
lattice point per unit cell.
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Non-primitive Unit cell

Examples

1. Body Centered Cubic Unit Cell.

2. Face Centered Cubic Unit Cell.
3. End-Centered Cubic Unit Cell.

1) Body Centered Cubic Unit Cell

In a body-centered unit cell, 8 atoms are located on the 8 corners and
1 atom is present at the center of the structure. So total atoms in the
body-centered unit cell will be:

Since 8 atoms are present at the corners, each will contribute 1/8th of
the original volume of the cell. Thus, in the body-centered cubic unit
cell:

There are 8 corners and 1 corner shares 1/8th volume of the entire
cell, so

Also, the atom at the Centre is wholly present at the Centre of the cell
and can’t be shared
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1 × 1 = 1 atom

So, there are total 2 atoms present in a body centered unit cell.

Body-Centered Cubic unit cell

Face-centered Cubic Unit Cell

In face-centered cubic unit cell atoms are present on 8 corners and center of all the
faces. Also, each atom located on the Centre of the unit cell is shared by two
adjacent unit cells. Therefore, only half atom belongs to a single unit cell.

Thus, in Face-centered cubic unit cell. There are 8 atoms present on 8 corners,
therefore, each corner will get 1/8 part of atom

There are six faces and each face get 1/2 part of atom then.
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Total atoms present in a face-centered unit cell = 1 + 3 = 4 atoms

Face Centered Cubic Unit Cell

End-centered Cubic Unit Cell

In end-centered cubic unit cell, 8 atoms are located on 8 corners of the cube and 1
atom each is present on two opposite faces of the cube.

Therefore, in end-centered cubic unit cell. There are 8 atoms present on 8 corners,
therefore each atom contributes 1/8th portion of the cell

There are 2 atoms located at the center of the two opposite faces and each contributes
1/2, so

Total atoms present in an end-centered cubic unit cell = 1 + 1 = 2 atoms

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End-centered Cubic Unit Cell