Laws of crystallography: The crystallography is based on the three fundamental laws

which are as follows.

The Law of constancy of the interfacial angles: Crystals are bound by plane faces. The
angle between any two faces are called interfacial angle. This law states that interfacial
angle of the crystal of the particular substance is always constant inspite of having different
shapes and sizes and mode of growth of crystal. The size and shape of the crystal depend
upon the conditions of the crystallization. This law is also known as Steno's Law.

The Law of rational indices : This law describes that the ratio of intercepts of the different
faces of a crystal with the three axes are constant and can be expressed by the rational
numbers that the intercepts of any face of the crystal along the crystallographic axes are
either equal to unit intercepts (which means intercepts made by the unit cell) a, b, c or
various simple whole number multiples of them such as na, n' b, n''c, where n, n' and n'' are
the simple whole numbers. The whole 3 numbers n, n' and n'' are known as Weiss indices.
This law was given by the scientist Hauy

The Law of constancy of symmetry: In accordance to this law, all the crystals of a
substance have the same elements of the symmetry is the plane of symmetry, the axis of
symmetry and the centre of symmetry.
Symmetry of Crystal
Crystal Symmetry It explains how similar atoms or group of atoms (motif) repeated symmetrically
in space to produce ordered structure. In many crystals, regularity of arrangement of these plane
faces occurs, and a careful study of such a crystal will reveal elements of symmetry.

 There are six (6) elements of symmetry in crystals: a Center of Symmetry, an Axis of
Symmetry, a Plane of Symmetry, an Axis of Rotatory Inversion, a Screw-axis of Symmetry,
and a Glide-plane of Symmetry.

Centre of Symmetry It is an imaginary point in the crystal that any line drawn through it
intersects the surface of the crystal at equal distance on either side
1.  Isometric system: Isometric system has highest degree of symmetry and having total
23crystal symmetry among which 9 plane of symmetry and 13 axis of symmetry present i.e.
this having 6-II fold axis,4- IIIfold axis, 3-IV fold axis no VI fold axis and also centre of
symmetry is present. Symmetrical characteristics of six crystal system
2. Tetragonal system : Tetragonal system having total 11 symmetry among which, 5 plane of
symmetry and axis of symmetry present i.e. this having 04-II fold axis, no III-fold axis, 01-IV
fold axis no VI fold axis and also centre of symmetry is present
3. Orthorhombic system:Orthorhombic system having total 7 symmetry among which , 3 plane
of symmetry and axis of symmetry present i.e. this having 3-II fold axis, no III-fold axis, no IV
fold axis no VI fold axis and also centre of symmetry is present.
4.  Hexagonal system: Hexagonal system having total 15 symmetry among which, seven plane
of symmetry and axis of symmetry present i.e. his having 6-II fold axis, no III-fold axis, and no
IV fold axis 01-VI fold axis and centre of symmetry is present
5.  Monoclinic system: Monoclinic system having total 3 symmetry among which, 1 plane of
symmetry and a axis of symmetry present i.e. this system having 01-II fold axis, no III-fold
axis no IV fold axis no VI fold axis and also centre of symmetry is present.
6. Triclinic System: This system has lest degree of symmetry and having only centre of
symmetry. Plane of symmetry and Axis of symmetry is absent

Axis of Symmetry An axis of symmetry or axis of rotation is an imaginary line, passing

through the crystal such that when the crystal is rotated about this line, it presents the same
appearance more than once in one complete revolution i.e., in a rotation through 360̊. On
the rotation about the axis, if the same faces or same view occurs 2 times, the axis termed
as Diad axis i.e. 3600/1800= 2 rotations • On the rotation about the axis, , if the same faces
or same view occurs 3 times, the axis termed as Triad axis i.e. 3600/1200= 3 rotations. On
the rotation about the axis, if the same faces or same view occurs 4 times, the axis termed
as Tetrad axis or four fold axis. i.e. 3600/900= 4 rotations • On the rotation about the axis, , if
the same faces or same view occurs 6 times, the axis termed as Hexad axis or six fold axis.
i.e. 3600/600= 6 rotations.
Plane of symmetry It is an imaginary plane, which passes through the centre of a crystal
can, divides it into two equal portions, which are exactly the mirror images of each other
Screw axis symmetry — A screw axis is a line that is simultaneously the axis of rotation and
the line along which translation of a body occurs.
Glide-plane of Symmetry: glide plane is symmetry operation describing how a reflection in a
plane, followed by a translation parallel with that plane, may leave the crystal unchanged.
Lattice Plane

In crystallography, a lattice plane of a given Bravais lattice is a plane (or family of parallel
planes) whose intersections with the lattice (or any crystalline structure of that lattice) are
periodic (i.e. are described by 2d Bravais lattices) and intersect the Bravais lattice;
equivalently, a lattice plane is any plane containing at least three noncollinear Bravais lattice
points. All lattice planes can be described by a set of integer Miller indices, and vice versa
(all integer Miller indices define lattice planes)

Miller Indices

Miller indices are a symbolic vector representation for the orientation of an atomic plane in a
crystal lattice. It is defined as the reciprocal of the fractional intercepts which the plane
makes with the crystallographic axes.
Procedure for finding Miller indices
1. Find the intercepts of the plane along the co-ordinate axes X, Y and Z.
2. Take reciprocal of these intercepts.
3. Reduce the reciprocals into whole numbers using least common multipliers (LCM).
4. Write these integers within parentheses to get Miller indices.
For example, consider a crystal plane as shown in given figure

Intercepts are 1, 3, 2.
Reciprocal of these intercepts are 1/1, 1/3, 1/2 .
LCM of denominators 1, 3, 2 is 6. Hence multiplying by 6, we get 6/1, 6/3, 6/2 . The miller
indices of this plane is (6 2 3 ).

Some common Planes

Interplanar distance (or) ‘d’ spacing in cubic lattice
Definition: The distance between any two successive planes is called d spacing or
interplanar distance.

Let us consider a cubic lattice of length „a‟ with two planes ABC and Aʹ Bʹ Cʹ. Let d1 and d2
be the distance between the origin and the first (ABC) and second plane (Aʹ Bʹ Cʹ). Let d be
the distance between the two planes ABC and Aʹ Bʹ Cʹ
 Let us assume that the second plane lies in the origin. So we can find the distance between
the origin and first plane instead of finding the distance between the two planes.

The plane AB makes the intercepts OA,OB and OC on X,Y and Z axis respectively.
OA:OB:OC =1/h:1/k:1/l

Multiply by lattice constant “a”

OA= a/h OB= a/k OC=a/l

From the figure Cos α’=ON/OA=d/a/h=dh/a

Cos β’=ON/OB=d/a/k=dk/a
Cos γ’=ON/OC=d/a/l=dl/a
Bragg’s Law
Bragg’s law states that “When a beam of x-ray is incident on a crystal at an angle θ,
the reflected beam of x-ray also has the same angle of scattering θ. Constructive
interference will occur when path difference ‘d’ is equal to the whole number ‘n’ of
the wavelength.”

Mathematically, Bragg’s law equation can be represented as,

nλ = 2d sinθ

Therefore, according to Bragg’s law of diffraction,

1. The equation gives the reason as to why the crystal lattices reflect X-ray light beams
at specific angles of incidence, that is, ( θ, λ).
2. n, in the equation, denotes an integer.
3. ‘d’ is a variable that indicates the distance existing between the atomic layers.
4. λ (lambda) is a variable that denotes the wavelength of the x-ray wave that was
incident upon the surface.

Derivation
To derive Bragg's equation, let us consider a figure to observe the phases of beams
that coincide when the incident angle is equivalent to the angle of reflection.
.

 The incident beams are parallel to each other before they reach a point, z.
 When they eventually reach point z, they travel upwards after striking the
surface. 
 The second beam scatters when it reaches point B.
 AB + BC can be considered as the distance that is traveled by the second
beam.
 The extra distance it traveled is referred to as the integral multiple of the
wavelength.
 Here

nλ = AB + BC

Now, we know that, AB = BC

Thus, nλ = 2AB ----- 1)

Now, considering d as the hypotenuse of the right-angled triangle, ABz, it is

clear that AB is the opposite of the angle θ.

Therefore, AB = d sinθ ----- 2)

Substituting equation 2 in equation 1,

we get, nλ = 2d sinθ
Miller indices:  Miller indices form a notation system in crystallography for lattice
planes in crystal (Bravais) lattices.
In particular, a family of lattice planes of a given (direct) Bravais lattice is determined
by three integers h, k, and ℓ, the Miller indices. They are written (hkℓ), and denoted
the family of (parallel) lattice planes (of the given Bravais lattice) orthogonal
to ghkl=hb1+kb2+lb3 where bi  are the basis or primitive translation vectors of
the reciprocal lattice for the given Bravais lattice. (Note that the plane is not always
orthogonal to the linear combination of direct or original lattice vectors  because the
direct lattice vectors need not be mutually orthogonal.) This is based on the fact that
a reciprocal lattice vector g (the vector indicating a reciprocal lattice point from the
reciprocal lattice origin) is the wave vector of a plane wave in the Fourier series of a
spatial function (e.g., electronic density function) which periodicity follows the original
Bravais lattice, so wavefronts of the plane wave are coincident with parallel lattice
planes of the original lattice.
Planes with different Miller indices in cubic crystals

Examples of directions