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MILLER INDICES

PLANES
DIRECTIONS

From the law of rational indices developed by French Physicist and mineralogist
Abb Ren Just Hay
and popularized by
William Hallowes Miller

Vector r passing from the origin to a lattice point:


r = r 1 a + r2 b + r3 c
a, b, c fundamental translation vectors

Miller Indices for directions

(4,3)

(0,0)
5a + 3b

b
a

Miller indices [53]

[001]

[011]

[101]

[010]
[111]

[1 10]
[100]

[110]

Coordinates of the final point coordinates of the initial point


Reduce to smallest integer values

Family of directions
Index

Number in the family for cubic lattice

<100>

3x2=6

<110>

6 x 2 = 12

<111>

4x2=8

Symbol

Alternate
symbol

[]
<>

[[ ]]

Particular direction

Family of directions

Miller Indices for planes


(0,0,1)

(0,3,0)

(2,0,0)

Find intercepts along axes 2 3 1


Take reciprocal 1/2 1/3 1
Convert to smallest integers in the same ratio 3 2 6
Enclose in parenthesis (326)

Intercepts 1
Plane (100)
Family {100} 3

Intercepts 1 1
Plane (110)
Family {110} 6

Intercepts 1 1 1
Plane (111)
Family {111} 8
(Octahedral plane)

(111)
Family of {111} planes within the cubic unit cell

d111 a / 3 a 3 / 3
The (111) plane trisects the body diagonal

(111) Plane cutting the cube into two polyhedra


with equal volumes

Points about (hkl) planes


For a set of translationally equivalent lattice planes will divide:

Entity being divided


(Dimension containing the entity)
Cell edge (1D)

Diagonal of cell face (2D)

Body diagonal (3D)

Direction

number of parts

[100]

[010]

[001]

(100)

[011]

(k + l)

(010)

[101]

(l + h)

(001)

[110]

(h + k)

[111]

(h + k + l)

The (111) planes:

The portion of the central (111) plane as intersected by the various unit cells

Tetrahedron inscribed inside a cube


with bounding planes belonging to the
{111} family

8 planes of {111} family forming a


regular octahedron

Summary of notations

Alternate
symbols

Symbol
Direction

Plane

Point

[]

[uvw]

<>

<uvw>

()

(hkl)

{}

{hkl}

..

.xyz.

::

:xyz:

Particular direction

Family of directions

Particular plane

(( ))

Family of planes

[[ ]]

Particular point

Family of point

[[ ]]

A family is also referred to as a symmetrical set

Unknown direction [uvw]


Unknown plane (hkl)
Double digit indices should be separated by commas (12,22,3)
In cubic crystals [hkl] (hkl)

d hkl

a
h k l
2

Condition

(hkl) will pass through

h even

midpoint of a

(k + l) even

face centre (001)


midpoint of face diagonal (001)

(h + k + l) even

body centre
midpoint of body diagonal

Index

Number of
members in a
cubic lattice

(100)

d100 a

(110)

12

d110 a / 2 a 2 / 2

The (110) plane bisects the


face diagonal

(111)

d111 a / 3 a 3 / 3

The (111) plane trisects the


body diagonal

(210)

24

(211)

24

(221)

24

(310)

24

(311)

24

(320)

24

(321)

48

dhkl

Multiplicity factor

Cubic
Hexagonal
Tetragonal
Orthorhombic
Monoclinic
Triclinic

hkl
48*
hk.l
24*
hkl
16*
hkl
8
hkl
4
hkl
2

hhl
24
hh.l
12*
hhl
8
hk0
4
h0l
2

hk0
24*
h0.l
12*
h0l
8
h0l
4
0k0
2

hh0
12
hk.0
12*
hk0
8*
0kl
4

hhh
8
hh.0
6
hh0
4
h00
2

h00
6
h0.0
6
h00
4
0k0
2

* Altered in crystals with lower symmetry (of the same crystal class)

00.l
2
00l
2
00l
2

Hexagonal crystals Miller-Bravais Indices


a3

Intercepts 1 1 -
Plane (1 1 2 0)

(h k i l)
i = (h + k)

a2

a1

The use of the 4 index notation is to bring out the equivalence


between crystallographically equivalent planes and directions

Examples to show the utility of the 4 index notation

a3

a2

a1
Intercepts 1 -1

Intercepts 1 -1

Miller (1 1 0 )

Miller (0 1 0)

Miller-Bravais (1 1 0 0 )

Miller-Bravais (0 1 1 0)

Examples to show the utility of the 4 index notation

a3

a2

Intercepts 1 -2 -2
Plane (2 1 1 0 )

a1

Intercepts 1 1 -
Plane (1 1 2 0)

Intercepts 1 1 - 1
Plane (1 1 2 1)

Intercepts 1 1 1
Plane (1 0 1 1)

Directions

Directions are projected onto the basis vectors to determine the components

[1120]

a1

a2

a3

Projections

a/2

a/2

Normalized wrt LP

1/2

1/2

Factorization

Indices

[1 1 2 0]

Transformation between 3-index [UVW] and 4-index [uvtw] notations

U u t

V v t

1
u (2U V )
3

W w

1
v (2V U ) t (u v)
3

w W

Directions in the hexagonal system can be expressed in many ways


3-indices:
By the three vector components along a1, a2 and c:
rUVW = Ua1 + Va2 + Wc
In the three index notation equivalent directions may not seem equivalent
4-indices:

Directions Planes
Cubic system: (hkl) [hkl]
Tetragonal system: only special planes are to the direction with same indices:
[100] (100), [010] (010), [001] (001), [110] (110)
([101] not (101))
Orthorhombic system:
[100] (100), [010] (010), [001] (001)
Hexagonal system: [0001] (0001)
(this is for a general c/a ratio; for a Hexagonal crystal with the special c/a ratio
= (3/2) the cubic rule is followed)
Monoclinic system: [010] (010)
Other than these a general [hkl] is NOT (hkl)

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