Lattice Structure

Dr.A.K.Das
BML Munjal University
Mechanical Engineering

Polymorphism & Allotropy

Some metals, as well as non-metals, may have more than one crystal structure, a
phenomenon known as polymorphism. When found in elemental solids, the
condition is often termed allotropy. The prevailing crystal structure depends on
both the temperature and the external pressure.
One familiar example is found in carbon: graphite is the stable polymorph at
ambient conditions, whereas diamond is formed at extremely high pressures. Also,
pure iron has a BCC crystal structure at room temperature, which changes to FCC
iron at 9120 C.

Lattice Definition & Properties

The unit cell is a subdivision of lattice, that still retains the characteristics of the
entire lattice.
By stacking unit cells, the entire lattice can be constructed.
There are seven unique arrangements, known as crystal systems.
Although there are seven crystal systems, there can be a total of 14 distinct
arrangements of lattice points.
These unique arrangements of lattice points are known as the Bravais Lattices.
The concept of lattice is only mathematical & does not mention atoms, ions or
molecules.

Lattice Parameters

The unit cell geometry is completely defined in terms of six parameters: the three
edge lengths a, b, and c, and the three interaxial angles a, b, and g. These are
indicated in figure below, and are sometimes termed the lattice parameters of a
crystal structure.
On this basis there are seven different possible combinations of a, b, and c and a,b,
and g, each of which represents a distinct crystal system. These seven crystal
systems are cubic, tetragonal, hexagonal, orthorhombic, rhombohedral,2
monoclinic, and triclinic. The lattice parameter relationships and unit cell sketches
for each are represented in Table.

Lattice Parameter

The lattice constant, or lattice parameter, refers to the physical dimension of unit
cells in a crystal lattice. Lattices in three dimensions generally have three lattice
constants, referred to as a, b, and c. However, in the special case of cubic crystal
structures, all of the constants are equal and we only refer to a. Similarly,
in hexagonal crystal structures, the a, b are constants & are equal, and we only
refer to the a and c constants. A group of lattice constants could be referred to
as lattice parameters. However, the full set of lattice parameters consist of the
three lattice constants and the three angles between them.
Unit cell definition using parallelepiped with lengths a, b, c and angles between the
sides given by , ,

Lattice Parameters

Crystal System & Bravais Lattice

Classification of Space Lattice by Crystal System

The 14 Bravais
conventional unit
cells grouped
according to
crystal system.
The dots
indicate lattice
points that, when
located on faces
or at corners, are
shared by other
identical lattice
unit cells.

Lattice Types

Crystallographic Directions & Planes

When dealing with crystalline materials, it often becomes necessary to specify a

particular point within a unit cell, a crystallographic direction, or some
crystallographic plane of atoms. Labelling conventions have been established in
which three numbers or indices are used to designate point locations, directions,
and planes. The basis for determining index values is the unit cell, with a right
handed coordinate system consisting of three (x, y, and z) axes situated at one of
the corners and coinciding with the unit cell edges.
For some crystal systemsnamely, hexagonal, rhombohedral, monoclinic, and
triclinicthe three axes are not mutually perpendicular, as in the familiar Cartesian
coordinate scheme.

Number of Atoms per Unit Cell

A specific number of lattice points define each of the unit cells.

A lattice point at a corner of one unit cell is shared by seven adjacent unit cells,
thus a total of 8 cells.
Only one-eighth of each corner lattice point belongs to one particular cell.
Thus the number of lattice points from all of the corner positions in one unit cell is:-

The number of atoms per unit cell is the product of the number of atoms per lattice
point & the number of lattice points per unit cell.
In most metals one atom is located at each lattice point.

Directions in the Unit Cell

Miller indices for directions are the shorthand notation used

to describe these directions.
The procedure for finding Miller Indices for directions are: Using the right handed co-ordinate system, determine
the coordinates of two points that lie on the direction.
Subtract the coordinate of the tail point from
coordinated of the head point to obtain the number of
lattice parameters, travelled in the direction of each
axis of the coordinate system
Clear fractions and/or reduce the results obtained from
the subtraction to lowest integers.
Enclose the numbers in the square brackets [ ]. If a
negative sign appears, represent the negative sign
with a bar over the number.

Examples

Significance of Crystallographic Directions

Crystallographic directions are used to indicate a particular orientation of a single

crystal or of an oriented polycrystalline material.
Examples:
Dependence of magnetic properties of iron & other magnetic materials on the
crystallographic directions. It is much easy to magnetize iron in [100] direction
compared to [111] or [110] directions. This is used in magnetic applications of
Fe-Si steels.
Forming of sheet metals in & across rolling directions, bend radius differs.