Lecture notes: 9th November 2020

Course no:508: BSc. (Hons)

SOLID STATE
PHYSICS
Dr. Syed Rizwan Ali

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI

Atomic Packing Fraction (APF)

 A measure of how dense the atoms are packed in a unit cell

 Atomic Packing Fraction (APF)
Atomic packing factor (APF) or packing fraction is the fraction of volume in
a crystal structure that is occupied by constituent particles.

APF= Volume occupied by atoms / Volume of the cell

For one component crystal i.e., crystals having only one type of particle

𝑵𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝑽𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆
𝑨𝑷𝑭 =
V𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒍
Where,
𝑵𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆 = 𝑵𝒐 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕 𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒍
𝑽𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆 = 𝑽𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕 𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒍

𝑽𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒍 = 𝑽𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕 𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒍

 APF is determined by assuming that atoms are rigid spheres.

Radius of atoms it taken as maximum but avoiding atomic overlap.
 APF: Simple Cubic Lattice

𝑵𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝑽𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆
𝑨𝑷𝑭 =
𝑽𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒍

For a SC unit cell: 𝑵𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆 = 𝟏

Considering atoms as a hard sphere:

𝟒 𝟑
𝑽𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆 = 𝝅𝒓
𝟑
𝟒 𝟑
(𝟏) 𝟑 𝝅𝒓
𝑨𝑷𝑭 =
𝒂𝟑 𝟒 𝟑
(𝟏) 𝟑 𝝅𝒓 𝝅
But 𝒂 = 𝟐𝒓  𝑨𝑷𝑭 =  𝑨𝑭𝑷 = ≈ 𝟎. 𝟓𝟐
𝟐𝒓 𝟑 𝟔

 𝑷𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚 = 𝟓𝟐 % 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒄𝒖𝒃𝒊𝒄 (SC) 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒆

AFP: Body Centered Cubic (bcc)
B

𝑨𝑩 = 𝒂𝟐 + 𝒂𝟐 + 𝒂𝟐
a
A a

4𝒓 = 𝟑 𝒂 for bcc
AFP: Body Centered Cubic (bcc)

𝑵𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝑽𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆
𝑨𝑷𝑭 =
𝑽𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒍

For a bcc unit cell: 𝑵𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆 = 𝟐

𝟒
(𝟐) 𝟑 𝝅𝒓𝟑 𝟒
𝑨𝑷𝑭 = But 𝒂 = 𝒓
𝟑
𝒂𝟑

𝟒 𝟑 𝝅 𝟑
(𝟐) 𝟑 𝝅𝒓  ≈ 𝟎. 𝟔𝟖
𝟖
𝑨𝑷𝑭 =
𝟒 𝟑
𝒓
𝟑

 𝑷𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚 = 𝟔𝟖 % 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒃𝒄𝒄 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒆

AFP: Face Centered Cubic (fcc)

𝒓𝒓

𝟐𝒓

𝒓
𝟒𝒓 = 𝟐 𝒂 for fcc
𝟒 𝟑
(𝟒) 𝟑 𝝅𝒓 𝝅 𝟐
𝑨𝑷𝑭 =  ≈ 𝟎. 𝟕𝟒
𝟒 𝟑
𝟔
𝒓
𝟐

 𝑷𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚 = 𝟕𝟒 % 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒇𝒄𝒄 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒆

Characteristics of Cubic Lattices

 𝑨𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 studied 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇

𝒄𝒖𝒃𝒊𝒄 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆.

 𝑰𝑴𝑷𝑶𝑹𝑻𝑨𝑵𝑻: 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓

𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔.
Hexagonal lattice
Hexagonal Close Packed Structure (hcp)

𝑵𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒍 = (𝟔 × 𝟏/𝟔) + (𝟔 × 𝟏/𝟔) + (𝟐 × 𝟏/𝟐) + 𝟑 = 𝟔

Close packing of atoms in solids:

ABABAB………..yields hcp
ABCABC……......yields ccp or fcc
Hexagonal Close Packed Structure (hcp)

A
A B A B A B…,
B

Color of above and below figures are not correlated.

A
Cubic Close Packed Structure (ccp)

CUBIC CLOSED PACKED (CCP) IS THE

FACE CENTERED CUBIC (FCC) LATTICE
 Cubic Close Packed Structure (ccp)

Cubic closed packed lattice is the same as fcc lattice.

 Planes B and C are called (111) planes in fcc lattice.
 (111) planes have the highest concentration of atoms.
The Miller indices (111) will be discussed in next lectures..
Homework
 For the HCP crystal structure, show that the ideal c/a ratio is
1.633. This is problem 3 Chapter 1 C. Kittle.

 Show that the atomic packing factor for HCP is 0.74.

Hint: see class lecture.

 Here is problem 1 Chapter 1 C. Kittle. Can you solve this also?

I think you should try!
(Hint: you need to find the angle b/w the body diagonals of a cube.)
 Five fold Symmetry in nature
These okra slices seems to have
five fold rotational symmetry.

ACTIVITY:
Please confirm if its true for the
okra species cultivated in
PAKISTAN.

Pakistan is one of worlds

leading Okra producing
country despite of our
backward land cultivation
methods and poor crop
management.
 Books

 Charles Kittel, Introduction to Solid State Physics, Wiley,

2004
 S. O. Pillai, Solid State Physics, 7th Edition by New Age
International
 M. A. Omar, Elementary Solid State Physics, Addison-
Wesley, 1993.
 H. Ibach, H. Lüth, Solid-State Physics: An Introduction to
Principles of Materials Science, Springer, 2003.
Some useful tables
Books

THANK YOU