Crystal structure (microscopic)

Halite (table salt, NaCl): Microscopic and macroscopic

Microscopic structure of a halite crystal. (Purple is sodium ion, green is chlorine ion). There is cubic

symmetry in the atoms' arrangement

Macroscopic (~16 cm) halite crystal. The right-angles between crystal faces are due to the cubic symmetry of
the atoms' arrangement

Main article: Crystal structure

The scientific definition of a "crystal" is based on the microscopic arrangement of atoms inside it,
called the crystal structure. A crystal is a solid where the atoms form a periodic arrangement.
(Quasicrystals are an exception, see below).
Not all solids are crystals. For example, when liquid water starts freezing, the phase change begins
with small ice crystals that grow until they fuse, forming a polycrystalline structure. In the final block
of ice, each of the small crystals (called "crystallites" or "grains") is a true crystal with a periodic
arrangement of atoms, but the whole polycrystal does not have a periodic arrangement of atoms,
because the periodic pattern is broken at the grain boundaries. Most macroscopic inorganic solids
are polycrystalline, including almost all metals, ceramics, ice, rocks, etc. Solids that are neither
crystalline nor polycrystalline, such as glass, are called amorphous solids, also called glassy,
vitreous, or noncrystalline. These have no periodic order, even microscopically. There are distinct
differences between crystalline solids and amorphous solids: most notably, the process of forming a
glass does not release the latent heat of fusion, but forming a crystal does.
A crystal structure (an arrangement of atoms in a crystal) is characterized by its unit cell, a small
imaginary box containing one or more atoms in a specific spatial arrangement. The unit cells
are stacked in three-dimensional space to form the crystal.
The symmetry of a crystal is constrained by the requirement that the unit cells stack perfectly with no
gaps. There are 219 possible crystal symmetries, called crystallographic space groups. These are
grouped into 7 crystal systems, such as cubic crystal system (where the crystals may form cubes or
rectangular boxes, such as halite shown at right) or hexagonal crystal system (where the crystals
may form hexagons, such as ordinary water ice).

Crystal faces and shapes

As a halite crystal is growing, new atoms can very easily attach to the parts of the surface with rough atomic-
scale structure and many dangling bonds. Therefore, these parts of the crystal grow out very quickly (yellow
arrows). Eventually, the whole surface consists of smooth, stable faces, where new atoms cannot as easily
attach themselves.

Crystals are commonly recognized by their shape, consisting of flat faces with sharp angles. These
shape characteristics are not necessary for a crystal—a crystal is scientifically defined by its
microscopic atomic arrangement, not its macroscopic shape—but the characteristic macroscopic
shape is often present and easy to see.
Euhedral crystals are those with obvious, well-formed flat faces. Anhedral crystals do not, usually
because the crystal is one grain in a polycrystalline solid.
The flat faces (also called facets) of a euhedral crystal are oriented in a specific way relative to the
underlying atomic arrangement of the crystal: they are planes of relatively low Miller index.[9] This
occurs because some surface orientations are more stable than others (lower surface energy). As a
crystal grows, new atoms attach easily to the rougher and less stable parts of the surface, but less
easily to the flat, stable surfaces. Therefore, the flat surfaces tend to grow larger and smoother, until
the whole crystal surface consists of these plane surfaces. (See diagram on right.)
One of the oldest techniques in the science of crystallography consists of measuring the three-
dimensional orientations of the faces of a crystal, and using them to infer the underlying crystal
symmetry.
A crystal's habit is its visible external shape. This is determined by the crystal structure (which
restricts the possible facet orientations), the specific crystal chemistry and bonding (which may favor
some facet types over others), and the conditions under which the crystal formed.

Occurrence in nature
Ice crystals

Fossil shell with calcite crystals

Rocks
By volume and weight, the largest concentrations of crystals in the Earth are part of its solid bedrock.
Crystals found in rocks typically range in size from a fraction of a millimetre to several centimetres
across, although exceptionally large crystals are occasionally found. As of 1999, the world's largest
known naturally occurring crystal is a crystal of beryl from Malakialina, Madagascar, 18 m (59 ft) long
and 3.5 m (11 ft) in diameter, and weighing 380,000 kg (840,000 lb).[10]
Some crystals have formed by magmatic and metamorphic processes, giving origin to large masses
of crystalline rock. The vast majority of igneous rocks are formed from molten magma and the
degree of crystallization depends primarily on the conditions under which they solidified. Such rocks
as granite, which have cooled very slowly and under great pressures, have completely crystallized;
but many kinds of lava were poured out at the surface and cooled very rapidly, and in this latter
group a small amount of amorphous or glassy matter is common. Other crystalline rocks, the
metamorphic rocks such as marbles, mica-schists and quartzites, are recrystallized. This means that
they were at first fragmental rocks like limestone, shale and sandstone and have never been in
a molten condition nor entirely in solution, but the high temperature and pressure conditions
of metamorphism have acted on them by erasing their original structures and inducing
recrystallization in the solid state.[11]
Other rock crystals have formed out of precipitation from fluids, commonly water, to
form druses or quartz veins. Evaporites such as halite, gypsum and some limestones have been
deposited from aqueous solution, mostly owing to evaporation in arid climates.

Ice
Water-based ice in the form of snow, sea ice, and glaciers are common crystalline/polycrystalline
structures on Earth and other planets. [12] A single snowflake is a single crystal or a collection of
crystals,[13] while an ice cube is a polycrystal.[14]