NANO TECHNOLOGY

ENMT807951
 # Lecture 3

PHYSICS OF SOLIDS:
REVIEW ON CRYSTAL STRUCTURES

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 Introduction

• Most solids are crystalline with their atoms arranged in a

regular manner.
• They have what is called long-range order (LRO) because
the regularity can extend throughout the crystal.
• In contrast, amorphous materials lack of long range order,
but they have what is called short-range order (SRO) so the
local environment of each atom is similar to that of other
equivalent atoms, but this regularity does not persist over
appreciable distances.
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• The arrangement of atoms in solids
in general will: (a) exhibit long-
range order, (b) only short order, or
(iii) a combination of both.
• Solids that exhibit long-range order
(LRO) are referred to as crystalline
solids, while those in which that
periodicity is lacking (or exists only
in short-range order) are known as
amorphous, glassy, or non-
crystalline solids.
(a) Long-range order; (b) short-range order
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 SIZE DEPENDENCE
• Many properties of solids depend on the size range over which
they are measured.
• Microscopic details become averaged when investigating bulk
materials.
• At the macro- or large-scale range ordinarily studied in
traditional fields of physics such as mechanics, electricity and
magnetism, and optics, the sizes of the objects under study
range from millimeters to kilometers.
• The properties associated with these materials are averaged
properties, such as the density and elastic moduli in mechanics,
the resistivity and magnetization in electricity and magnetism,
and the dielectric constant in optics.
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 • When measurements are made in the micrometer or nanometer
range, many properties of materials change, such as
mechanical, ferroelectric, and ferromagnetic properties.
• The characteristics of solids at the nanoscale level, can be
considered to be 1 to l00 nm.
• Below this there is the atomic scale near 0.1 nm, followed by the
nuclear scale near a femtometer (10-6 nm).
• A lattice consisting of a repeating unit (“the unit cell”) arranged
such that identical surroundings exist everywhere one looks.

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 Lattice points The repeating unit
containing one or “unit cell”
or more atoms

A lattice consisting of a regularly repeated array of points

(have translational symmetry)

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Lattice or not?

• This is a lattice
• Why?
• Each point has identical
surroundings

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Lattice or not?

• This is not a lattice

• Why?
• Surroundings of all points
are not identical

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 • There are only a finite number of lattices that satisfy the
periodicity requirement for a crystalline material
• But the number of crystal structures far exceeds the number of
lattices that exist
• How? Due to differences in what is located at each lattice point
(could be one or many but will be the same for all points)

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 Motif

One atom per lattice points Two atoms per lattice points

These two examples have the same 2D lattice, but a different

crystal structure

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 General Concept of Crystal Lattice

A point lattice is made up of regular, repeating points in space.

An atom or group of atoms are tied to each lattice point
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 Basic questions:

Q: How does a crystal lattice differ from a crystal structure?

A: A crystal structure is built of atoms, whereas a crystal
lattice is an infinite pattern of points, each of which must
have the same surroundings in the same orientation.
A lattice is a mathematical concept:
There are only:
• 5 different two-dimensional/2-D (planar) lattices and
• 14 different three-dimensional/3-D (Bravais) lattices.

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 • All the unit cells shown describe the lattice
• The lattice is not affected by the choice of unit cell
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 Unit cell and lattice

• The choice of unit cell is arbitrary so long a unit cell can be

repeated
• What we usually do is to use the simplest, most symmetrical
unit cell that will describe the lattice

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 Two-dimensional lattices

• There are only five two-dimensional lattices

Square Rectangular Oblique Diamond Hexagonal

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 Three-dimensional lattices

• There are only 14 possible three-dimensional lattices called

Bravais lattices
• Could we produce others? No, other lattices can be
described by one of the 14 unit cells in the Bravais lattice set
• Could we use more than one unit cell from amongst the 14?
Often, yes we could, but as with 2-D we use the simplest
most symmetrical as a convenience

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 Basic Crystallography
Crystal system Lattice symbol Lattice parameters
1. Triclinic aP a ≠ b ≠ c, α ≠ 90o, β ≠ 90, γ ≠ 90o
2. Monoclinic primitive mP a ≠ b ≠ c, α = 90o, β ≠ 90, γ = 90o
Monoclinic centered mC
3. Orthorhombic primitive oP a ≠ b ≠ c, α = β = γ = 90o
Orthorhombic C-face-centered oC
Orthorhombic body-centered oI
Orthorhombic face-centered oF

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 Crystal system Lattice symbol Lattice parameters
4. Tetragonal primitive tP a = b ≠ c, α = β = γ = 90o
Tetragonal body-
centered tI
5. Trigonal
(Rhombohedral) hR a = b = c, α = β = γ (primitive cell);
a' = b’ ≠ c’, α’ = β’ = 90o, γ’ = 120o
(hexagonal cell)
6. Hexagonal primitive hP a = b ≠ c, α = β = 90o, γ = 120o
7. Cubic primitive cP a = b = c, α = β = γ = 90o
Cubic body-centered cI
Cubic face-centered cF

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 c b b

a a
β α b
c c
β β
a γ

Triclinic Primitive monoclinic Base-centered monoclinic

c
c c

b c
120o b b b
a a
α α a a
α

Rhombohedral Primitive hexagonal Primitive tetragonal Body-centered tetragonal

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 c c
c c

b b
b b a a
a a

Primitive Body-centered Base-centered Face-centered

orthorhombi orthorhombic orthorhombic orthorhombic
c

c c c

b b b
a a a

Primitive cubic Body-centered cubic Face-centered cubic

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 Do we need only 14 Bravais?

At first sight this lattice seems to be “base

centered tetragonal”, i.e. not a Bravais
lattices

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 However, in fact the lattice is actually
simple (or primitive) tetragonal

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 More than one Bravais?

FCC crystal lattice

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 Body centered tetragonal (BCT) lattice

• The FCC crystal shown could equally be described by a body centered

tetragonal (BCT) lattice
• However, we usually find the use of FCC as a description far more
convenient than BCT
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