Some typical

Crystal Structures

Luc Huy Hoang

Hanoi, 2020 1
 Coordination Number
The Coordinatıon Number 
The number of lattice points closest to a given point
(the number of nearest-neighbors of each point).
• Because of lattice periodicity, all points have the same number of
nearest neighbors or coordination number. (That is, the
coordination number is intrinsic to the lattice.)
Examples
Simple Cubic (SC) coordination number = 6
Body-Centered Cubic coordination number = 8
Face-Centered Cubic coordination number = 12

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 CUBIC CRYSTAL SYSTEMS
Three Common Unit Cells with Cubic Symmetry

Simple Cubic Body Centered Cubic Face Centered Cubic

(SC) (BCC) (FCC) 3
 C

B
A
Close Packed

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 Comments on Close Packing
Close Packed
A A A
A A A A A B B
A A A
A A A A
B B B B B B
C C C A A
A A A A A A
B B B
C C C C
A A A A
B B
C
B
C
B Sequence ABCABCAB:
C
Face Centered Cubic
Sequence ABABAB: Close Packed
Hexagonal Close Packed

Sequence ABAB: Sequence AAA:

Body Centered Cubic Simple Cubic 5
ABAB Hexagonal Close Packed

He, Be, Ti, Cd, Co, Y

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ABCABC Face Centered Cubic
Close Packed B

A
B C

Ne, Ar, Ag, Au, Pt 7

Comparison of the 3 Cubic Lattice Systems
Unit Cell Contents
Counting the number of atoms within the unit cell
Atom Position Shared Between Each atom counts:
corner 8 cells 1/8
face center 2 cells 1/2
body center 1 cell 1
edge center 2 cells 1/2

Lattice Type Atoms per Cell

P (Primitive) 1 [= 8  1/8]
I (Body Centered) 2 [= (8  1/8) + (1  1)]
F (Face Centered) 4 [= (8  1/8) + (6  1/2)]
C (Side Centered) 2 [= (8  1/8) + (2  1/2)]
8
 1- CUBIC CRYSTAL SYSTEMS
Three common Unit Cells with Cubic Symmetry

Simple Cubic Body Centered Cubic Face Centered Cubic

(SC) (BCC) (FCC) 9
 a- The Simple Cubic (SC) Lattice
• The SC Lattice has one lattice point in its unit cell, so it’s unit cell is a primitive
cell.
• In the unit cell shown on the left, the atoms at the corners are cut because only a
portion (in this case 1/8) “belongs” to that cell. The rest of the atom “belongs” to
neighboring cells.
• The Coordination Number of the SC Lattice = 6.

b
c

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Simple Cubic (SC) Lattice
Atomic Packing Factor

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 b- The Body Centered Cubic (BCC) Lattice

• The BCC Lattice has two lattice points

per unit cell so the BCC unit cell is a non-
primitive cell.
• Every BCC lattice point has 8 nearest-
neighbors. So (in the hard sphere model)
each atom is in contact with its neighbors
only along the body-diagonal directions.
• Many metals (Fe,Li,Na..etc), including c
b
the alkalis and several transition elements
a
have the BCC structure.
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BCC Structure

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 Body Centered Cubic (BCC) Lattice
Atomic Packing Factor

4R V atoms
a= APF BCC = = 0.68
3 V unit cell

2 (0.433a)

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Elements with the BCC Structure

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 c- The Face Centered Cubic (FCC) Lattice
• In the FCC Lattice there are atoms at the corners of the unit cell
and at the center of each face.
• The FCC unit cell has 4 atoms so it is a non-primitive cell.

• Every FCC Lattice point has 12 nearest-neighbors.

• Many common metals (Cu,Ni,Pb..etc) crystallize in the FCC structure.

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FCC Structure

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THE “MOST IMPORTANT”
CRYSTAL STRUCTURES

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 THE “MOST IMPORTANT”
CRYSTAL STRUCTURES

• Sodium Chloride Structure Na+Cl-

• Cesium Chloride Structure Cs+Cl-

• Hexagonal Closed-Packed Structure

• Diamond Structure

• Zinc Blende
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 1 – Sodium Chloride Structure
➢ Sodium chloride also crystallizes
in a cubic lattice, but with a
different unit cell.
➢ The sodium chloride structure
consists of equal numbers of
sodium & chlorine ions placed at
alternate points of a simple cubic
lattice.
➢ Each ion has six of the other kind
of ions as its nearest neighbors.
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• This structure can also be
considered as a face-centered-cubic
Bravais lattice.

• LiF, NaBr, KCl, LiI, have

this structure.
• The lattice constants are of the
order of 4-7 Angstroms.

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 NaCl Structure
• Take the NaCl unit cell & remove all “red” Cl ions, leaving
only the “blue” Na. Comparing this with the FCC unit cell, it is
found to be that they are identical. So, the Na ions are on a FCC
sublattice.

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NaCl Type Crystals

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2 - Cesium Chloride CsCl Structure

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 2 - CsCl Structure
• Cesium Chloride, CsCl, crystallizes
in a cubic lattice. The unit cell may
be depicted as shown.
(Cs+ is teal, Cl- is gold)
• Cesium Chloride consists of equal
numbers of Cs and Cl ions, placed at
the points of a body-centered cubic
lattice so that each ion has eight of
the other kind as its nearest
neighbors.
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CsCl Crystals

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 4 - Diamond Structure
C, Si, Ge & Sn crystallize in the Diamond structure.

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Diamond Lattice

Diamond Lattice
The Cubic Unit Cell

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 5 – Zinc Blende or ZnS Structure
➢ The Zincblende Structure has equal numbers of zinc and sulfur ions
distributed on a diamond lattice, so that Each has 4 of the opposite kind as
nearest-neighbors.

• Some compounds with this structure are: AgI, GaAs,

GaSb, InAs, .... L.H.Hoang, HNUE 30
 Zincblende (ZnS) Lattice

Zincblende Lattice
The Cubic Unit Cell

31
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