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Introduction to solid state physics

States of matter
Condensed matter physics
Condensed Matter

Rigid Matter Soft Matter


or Solids

Melts and
Crystalline Non-crystalline Liquid Crystals
Solutions
Solids or Amorphous
Solids
Bio-matter
(proteins, DNA,
Single Crystalline Poly-crystalline Membranes)
Solids Solids

SSP
What is solid state physics (SSP)?
Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as
quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the
largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the
large-scale properties of solid materials result from their atomic-scale properties.
Thus, solid-state physics forms the theoretical basis of materials science. It also
has direct applications, for example in the technology of transistors and
semiconductors (Wikipedia quoting)

Why study solid state physics?


 SSP studies the microscopic properties of solids that are responsible for the
majority of modern technology
 The entire computer and electronics industry relies on tuning of a special class of
material, the semiconductor
 SSP forms the foundation of applied physics associated with all branches of
technology
Crystallography
States of matter
 Gas: atoms are located far away from each other with little
interaction with each other. As the gas is heated up the atoms
become more energetic, increasing the probability of
collision.

 Liquid: atoms are closely packed but don not form a rigid
structure. It has no atomic or molecular order and they
assume the shape of its containers. As the liquid is heated up
the up the atoms move around but without clear relation to
one another .

 Solid: atoms are closely packed together in a rigid structure


with short- or long range order. As the solid is heated up,
the atoms oscillate around their equilibrium positions but
retain a rigid structure.
Classification of solids
Solids

Crystalline Solids Non-crystalline or Amorphous


Solids

Single Crystalline Poly-crystalline


Solids Solids

 Atoms are not arranged in a regular


manner and do not form a periodic
structure
 Atoms are arranged in a regular fashion and  May have short range order
form a periodic structure. between atoms
 There is a long range order in the position of  Atoms are at equilibrium spacing
the atoms (e.g. glasses)
 More than 90% of solids form crystalline
structure
 Single crystalline:
 A single crystal has a finite regular arrangement of atoms in space that
repeats periodically across its whole volume. They have a periodic atomic
structure.

 Each atom is related to every other equivalent atom in the structure by


translational or rotational symmetry.

 Example: diamond, quartz, mica


Single crystals:

Quartz crystal Mica sheet

Mica mineral

 Synthetic single crystals, especially silicon and


gallium arsenide, are used in solid-state
electronic devices such as integrated circuits
Tantalum single crystal and light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
 Polycrystalline solids
 A polycrystalline solid is composed of aggregates of many small single crystals.
 These single crystal regions are called grains and are separated by grain
boundaries. Typically a polycrystalline material has grains with the same crystal
structure.
 The atomic order can vary from one grain to the next.
 A grain can be 100 nm – 100 microns in size. Polycrystals with grains that are
<10 nm in diameter are usually called nanocrystalline.
 Metals, most of the ionic crystals and ceramics are polycrystals.
 Amorphous Solids:
 Amorphous or non-crystalline solids are composed of randomly orientated
atoms, ions, or molecules that do not have any defined pattern or lattice
structure.
 They do not have any long range order (symmetry), but they may have
varying degrees of short-range order.
 Examples to amorphous materials include amorphous silicon, most of the
plastics, rubber, and glasses.

Crystalline Si
Non-crystalline Si
 Lattice
 Lattice is an infinite set of regular geometric arrangement of points in the
crystal space.

 Space lattice/ Crystal lattice


 Space lattice is an infinite set of regular geometric arrangement of points
in the crystal space that looks like a net-like structure and every point has
identical surroundings.

Lattice point

Space lattice
Basis
 An atom or group of atoms or molecules attach to each lattice point are called
basis or atomic pattern or building pattern of the crystal.

Crystal structure= Space lattice + Basis

 In a real crystal the lattice point is replaced by a basis and every basis is
identical in composition, arrangement and orientation.
 The atoms do not necessarily lie at lattice points but basis must be in the same
orientation .

 Thus, a crystal structure results when basis is added to each lattice points of
space lattice.
 Lattice translation operation
 The repetitive nature of the basis or atomic pattern is expressed by the fact
that displacement or translation of crystal parallel to itself by a translation
operator, 𝑇 given by 𝑟′

𝑇 = 𝑢𝑎 + 𝑣𝑏 + w𝑐………………………………(1)

brings us exactly to an equivalent point.

𝑐 𝑎
𝑟
𝑏
 This process of displacement of a crystal by an operation 𝑇 given by
equation (1) is known as lattice translation operation.

Thus we have, 𝑟 ′ = 𝑟 + 𝑇 = 𝑟 + 𝑢 𝑎 + 𝑣𝑏 + w𝑐……………………………..(2)

Where, u, v and w are arbitrary integers. 𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐 are fundamental translational


vectors.
 Unit cell:
 The smallest unit of the crystal which on continuous repetition generates
the complete crystal.

 Both primitive and non-primitive translation vectors may be used to


construct a unit cell.

 For a two dimensional lattice, the unit cells are of the form of a
parallelogram and for a three dimensional lattice, the unit cells are of the
form of a parallelepiped.

𝑎2

𝑏2 𝑎3

𝑎1 𝑏3
𝑐
𝑏1 𝑎4
𝑎
𝑏
𝑏4
Fig. In 2 dimension Fig. In 3 dimension
 Primitive and non-primitive unit cells:
 A unit cell that contains only one lattice point is called a primitive unit cell
(P), which is made up from the lattice points at each of the corners.

 In case of non-primitive unit cells, there are additional lattice points, either
on a face of the unit cell or with in the unit cell. It is also known as a
centered unit cell.

 There are three types of centered unit


cells. They are
- Body centered (I)
- Face centered (f)
- Base centered (s)

Body-centered Face-centered Base-centered


cubic cubic orthorhombic
 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 inter axial angles α, β and γ.
These are called lattice parameters of a crystal.

 The three edge lengths of the unit cell a, b and c are called lattice constants.
Bravais lattices or space lattices in three dimension
 In 1850, Auguste Bravais showed that there
are only 14 different ways of arranging
identical points in 3D space so that the points
are equivalent in their surroundings. These
arrangement are later called the Bravais
Lattices.
 A Bravais Lattice is defined as an infinite array
of points which appears exactly the same
Auguste Bravais when viewed from any one of the lattice
points.

 The 14 Bravais lattices are 1) Triclinic


conveniently grouped into seven 2) Monoclinic
crystal systems according to the 3) Orthorhombic
seven types of conventional unit 4) Tetragonal
cells. These are- 5) Cubic
6) Trigonal (or rhombohedral) and
7) Hexagonal.
Seven crystal system, Bravis lattices and their unit cell specifications
Cubic: a = b = c, α = β = γ = 900

Coordination number
 Every atom in a crystal is surrounded by other atoms. The coordination
number may be defined as the number of nearest neighbors to an atom
in a crystal.

 For example, the coordination number of carbon atom in CH4 is four, because it
has four hydrogen atoms around it.
 Coordination number for cubic system

1) For simple cubic = 6

2) For body centered cubic= 8

3) For face centered cubic = 12

Simple cubic

BCC FCC
Number of atoms per unit cell
For simple cubic
In the primitive cubic unit cell, the atoms are only located on the corners. That means
8 atoms are located on 8 corners of the lattice. Each atom located on the corner
contributes 1/8th of the original volume of the cell. So number of atoms per unit cell
is
1
8× = 1 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚
8

 Body- centred Cubic Unit Cell

In a body-centred unit cell, 8 atoms are located on the 8 corners and 1 atom is present at
the center of the structure. 1 corner shares 1/8th volume of the entire cell. Also, the
atom at the centre is wholly present at the centre of the cell and can’t be shared.
1
(8 × 8) + 1 = 2 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑠

So there are total 2 atoms present in a body centred unit cell.

Face-centred Cubic Unit Cell


• In face-centred cubic unit cell atoms are present on 8 corners and center of all the faces.

•Each corner atom will be shared equally among 8 adjoining unit cells, therefore, each
corner will get 1/8 part of atom
1
8× = 1 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚
8
•There are six faces and each phase atom will be shared between 2 adjoining unit
cells. So each face gets 1/2 part of atom then

1
6× = 3 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑠
2
Total atoms present in a face-centred unit cell = 1 + 3 = 4 atoms
 No. of atoms per unit cell in hexagonal close packed (HCP) structure:
𝑁𝑐 𝑁𝑓 𝑁𝑖
𝑁= + +
6 2 1
12 2 3
= + +
6 2 1
=2+1+3
= 6 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑠
 We can also calculate the no. of atoms per unit cell in SC, BCC, and FCC structure using
the following formula:
𝑁𝑐 𝑁𝑓 𝑁𝑖
𝑁= + +
8 2 1

Atomic packing factor (APF)


The packing of atoms in a unit cell of the crystal structure of a material is
known as atomic packing. The atomic packing factor is defined as:

𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙


𝐴𝑃𝐹 =
𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙

 To perform this calculation, we need to know the volume of a cube and the volume of
a sphere.
 For simple cubic system
In case of SC structure, atoms are closely packed along the cube
edges.
If ‘a’ is the lattice parameter and ‘r’ is the atomic radius, then
𝑎
a= 2𝑟 Or, r= 2

4
Volume of an atom = π𝑟 3
3

4 𝑎 3 4π𝑎3
= π =
3 2 3×8

4π𝑎3 /3×8 𝜋
APF = = 6 = 0.52
𝑎3

Therefore, 52% of the simple cubic unit cell is occupied by atoms.

 For face centered cubic

In case of FCC structure, atoms are closely packed along the


face diagonal.
If ‘a’ is the lattice parameter and ‘r’ is the atomic radius,
D C
then from the Figure, we can write, AC = 4r
From ∆ABC
A𝐶 2 = 𝐴𝐵2 + 𝐵𝐶 2

Or, 4𝑟 2
= 𝑎2 + 𝑎2 Or, 16𝑟 2 = 2𝑎2
2𝑎2 𝑎 2 A B
Or, r= =
16 4
3
4 3 4 𝑎 2 4𝜋×2 2𝑎3
Volume of an atom = 𝜋𝑟 = 𝜋 =
3 3 4 3×64

4𝜋×2 2𝑎3
4× 4×4𝜋×2 2𝑎3
3×64
Therefore, APF = = = 0.74
𝑎3 3×64

So, 74% volume of the unit cell is occupied by atoms.


 For body centered cubic

In case of BCC structure, atoms are closely packed along the


body diagonal.

If ‘a’ is the lattice parameter and ‘r’ is the atomic radius,


then, from the figure we can write, BF= 4r

From ∆BEC,
𝐵𝐸 2 = 𝐵𝐶 2 + 𝐶𝐸 2
= 𝑎2 + 𝑎2 = 2𝑎2
So, 𝐵𝐸 = 𝑎 2
Again from ∆BFE,
𝐵𝐹 2 = 𝐵𝐸 2 + 𝐸𝐹 2
2
Or, 4𝑟 2 = 𝑎2 + 𝑎 2
Or, 16𝑟 2 = 𝑎2 + 2𝑎 2
Or, 3𝑎2 𝑎 3
r= =
16 4

3
4 3 4 𝑎 3
So, volume of an atom= 𝜋𝑟 = 𝜋
3 3 4
3
4 𝑎 3
2×3𝜋 4
Therefore, APF=
𝑎3
𝜋 3
= = 0.68
8

68% volume of the unit cell is occupied by atoms.

Crystal Directions and Planes


 It is often necessary to be able to specify certain direction and planes in crystals.

 Crystal directions and planes are described using 3 integers -- Miller indices.

 Many material properties vary with direction in the crystals, such as:
o Electrical conductivity
o Thermal conductivity
o Elastic modulus
o Polarizability
 William Hallowes Miller (1801-1880)
 Miller indices were introduced by the British mineralogist William Hallowes Miller.
Miller indices for crystal planes

 Miller indices are sets of integers obtained from the reciprocals of fractional intercepts
which the plane makes with the crystallographic axes, enclosed in parentheses used
to specify the positions and the orientation of the plane of a crystal.

 Miller indices are determined by the following rules:

1) Find the intercepts of the plane on the three axes a, b, c in terms of the lattice
constants.

2) Take the reciprocals of these integers.

3) Reduce the fractions to smallest three integers multiplying by lowest common


denominator.

4) The result enclosed in parentheses as (hkl) and is known as the Miller indices of the
plane.
 For example

Axes X Y Z
Intercepts 1 2 3
Reciprocals 1/1 1/2 1/3
Reduction 1 1 1
×6=6 ×6=3 ×6=2
1 2 3

So, Miller indices: (632) x

 If a plane cuts an axis on the negative side of the origin, the corresponding index is
negative and is indicated by a minus sign above the index such as ℎ 𝑘 𝑙 or ℎ 𝑘 𝑙 etc.

 The brackets { } are used to refer to all the sets of a given type, e.g., {100} refers to the
sets of (100), (010), (001). Such an arrangement constitutes a family of planes.

 In order to specify certain direction in a crystal, one employs three indices u, v, w


enclosed in square brackets i.e., the symbol [u v w], u, v, w are integers and same as h,
k, l.

 A family of equivalent sets of directions, such as [100], [100], [010], [010], [001] and
[001] is designated as angle bracket <100>.
Miller indices of some planes in cubic crystals
Directions of planes
Important features of Miller indices
 Miller indices do not define a particular plane but asset of parallel planes

 All equally spaced parallel planes have the same index numbers h, k, l.

 A plane parallel to one of the co-ordinate axes has an intercept of infinity


along that axis, the corresponding index being zero.

 A plane passing through the origin is defined in terms of a parallel plane


having non-zero intercepts.

 It is only the ratio of indices that is important. Thus the (422) planes are the
same as the (211) planes.
 Miller indices are especially useful for cubic crystals:

 The normal of a plane of index (ℎ 𝑘 𝑙) is [ℎ 𝑘 𝑙]

 The angle θ between two directions [ℎ1 𝑘1 𝑙1 ] and [ℎ2 𝑘2 𝑙2 ] can be obtained
from the following expression
ℎ1 ℎ2 + 𝑘1 𝑘2 + 𝑙1 𝑙2
cos 𝜃 = 1 1
(ℎ12 +𝑘12 + 𝑙12 ) 2 (ℎ22 +𝑘22 + 𝑙22 ) 2

 The distance ‘d’ between two adjacent parallel planes with index (ℎ 𝑘 𝑙) is
given by
𝑎
𝑑= 1
(ℎ2 + 𝑘 2 + 𝑙 2 ) 2
Crystal Planes

 In a 3D crystal lattice we can identify multiple sets of equally spaced


parallel planes.

 The perpendicular distance between 2 consecutive parallel planes is called


the interplanar distance.
Interplanar spacing ‘d’ in crystal lattices

Let us take any lattice point ‘O’ as the origin. Axes are taken in the a, b, c directions and
OP is the perpendicular distance between the origin ‘O’ and the plane ABC. Let h, k, l are
the Miller indices of the plane ABC.
Let us denote the angles between the normal OP and crystal axes respectively by α, β,
and γ.
The intercepts of the plane ABC on the three axes are OA, OB, and OC.

𝑎 𝑏 𝑐
𝑂𝐴 = ℎ , 𝑂𝐵 = 𝑘 and 𝑂𝐶 = 𝑙

d = OP= Interplanar separation

𝑎 𝑏 𝑐
d = OP= ℎ cosα= 𝑘 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛽 = 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛾 −−−−−−−− −(1)
𝑙

If 𝑛 is the unit vector normal to the plane, the


𝑛. 𝑎 = a cosα, 𝑛. 𝑏 = 𝑏 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛽, 𝑛. 𝑐 = 𝑐 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛾
𝑛. 𝑎 𝑛.𝑏 𝑛.𝑐
So, OP = d = = = -----------------------------------(2)
ℎ 𝑘 𝑙

In an orthogonal lattice, taking the X-axis along a, the Y-axis along b and Z-axis along
𝑎 𝑏 𝑐
c, the equation of (ℎ 𝑘 𝑙) plane whose intercepts are ℎ , 𝑘 , 𝑙 is
𝑥 𝑦 𝑧
𝑓 𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧 = = = =1
𝑎/ℎ 𝑏/𝑘 𝑐/𝑙
ℎ 𝑘 𝑙
Or, 𝑓 𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧 = 𝑎 𝑥 + 𝑏 𝑦 + 𝑐 𝑧 = 1
Since f(x, y, z) = constant, is the equation of a surface and the unit normal vector 𝑛 𝑖𝑠

∆𝑓
𝑛= Where, ∆𝑓 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑣𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑒.
∆𝑓

ℎ 𝑘 𝑙
𝑖 + 𝑖 +
𝑎 𝑥 𝑏 𝑦 𝑐 𝑖𝑧
=
2 2 2
ℎ 𝑘 𝑙
+ + 𝑐
𝑎 𝑏

The spacing ‘d’ between (ℎ 𝑘 𝑙) plane a parallel plane passing through the origin ‘O’ is

ℎ 𝑘 𝑙
𝑖𝑥 + 𝑖𝑦 +
𝑛. 𝑎 𝑎 𝑏 𝑐 𝑖𝑧 . 𝑎 𝑖𝑥
𝑑= =
ℎ 2 2 2
ℎ 𝑘 𝑙
ℎ + + 𝑐
𝑎 𝑏

.𝑎
𝑑= 𝑎
ℎ2 𝑘 2 𝑙 2
ℎ 2+ 2+ 2
𝑎 𝑏 𝑐

1 ------------------------(3)
=
ℎ2 𝑘 2 𝑙 2
+ +
𝑎2 𝑏 2 𝑐 2
It is evident from equation (3) that as the value of one or more of Miller indices
is increased, the distance between the successive planes is reduced.

𝑎
For a cubic lattice: 𝑑 =
ℎ2 +𝑘 2 +𝑙 2
Symmetry operations in crystal
 A symmetry operation is that transformation through which crystal remains invariant.

 These operations are translation, rotation, reflection and inversion. The translation
operation applies to lattices only while all the remaining operations and their
combinations apply to all objects and are collectively known as point symmetry
operations. The inversion operation is applicable only to 3-dimensional crystals.

1. Translation (symmetry) operation:


In crystal, the basis or atomic pattern repeats itself in all directions by means of a
translation operation, 𝑇 given by

𝑇 = 𝑢𝑎 + 𝑣𝑏 + w𝑐………………………………(1)

where u, v, w are arbitrary integers and 𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐 are translational vectors. This process
of displacement of a crystal parallel to itself by the crystal translational operation T is
called lattice translation operation and application of this operation to any point 𝑟 in a
crystal lattice result in a point 𝑟 ′ .
𝑟′ = 𝑟 + 𝑇
Which is identical in all respects to the original point 𝑟 and thus this is an equivalent
point.
2. Rotational symmetry or rotational operation

 A body is said to possess the rotational symmetry about an axis if the rotation of the body
about this axis by some angle θ leaves the body invariant.

 Lattice always remains invariant by a rotation of 2π. So for truly invariant of the body,
there must be an integral number of such rotations in one complete revolution of the body
2𝜋
i.e., 2π=nθ or 𝜃 = 𝑛 , where n is an integer. The integer n is called the multiplicity of
rotation axis.

 Thus, one-, two-, three-, four-, and six- fold rotation axes carry the lattice into itself and
corresponds to rotation by
2𝜋 2𝜋 2𝜋 2𝜋 2𝜋
, , , &
1 2 3 4 6

 In fact only 1-, 2-, 3-, 4- and 6- fold rotation axes can exist in a lattice and a 5-fold
rotation axis is impossible.
 Rotational symmetry about an axis
3. Reflection symmetry

A body is said to possess reflection symmetry if a plane can be drawn in the body
dividing it into two exactly similar parts, so that one half is the reflection of the other
half which are mirror images of each other. Such a plane is known mirror reflection
plane and is represented by m.

4. Inversion symmetry

The inversion operation is made up of a 2-fold or π-rotation followed by a reflection


in a plane normal to the rotation axis; the total effect is each point located at r
relative to a lattice point has an identical point located at –r. In other words, the
lattice possesses a centre of inversion denoted by I . Inversion operation is
applicable to 3-dimensional lattices only.
A crystal cannot have five-fold symmetry

Let AB = 𝑎 be a primitive translation vector


and OA = 𝑅1 , 𝑂𝐵 = 𝑅2 the two lattice
vectors connecting the origin to A and B, the
closest lattice points of the crystal.
Then, 𝑎 = 𝑅1 − 𝑅2

Now consider a line perpendicular to the


plane and passing through the lattice
point A. Let the vector 𝑎 be rotated
about this line as axis through an angle
2𝜋
𝜃 = 𝑛 in the anticlockwise direction so
that it produces a new lattice vector
𝑂𝐴′ = 𝑅1′ .

Similarly, let the vector 𝑎 be rotated about an axis passing through the lattice point B
2𝜋
and perpendicular to the plane of the paper through the same angle 𝜃 = 𝑛 in the clock
wise direction so that it produces a new lattice vector 𝑂𝐵′ = 𝑅2′
So, 𝐴𝐴′ = 𝐵𝐵 ′ = 𝑎
and ∠𝐵𝐴𝐴′ = ∠𝐴𝐵𝐵′ = 𝜃
The quadrilateral 𝐴𝐵𝐵′ 𝐴′ is a trapezium with 𝐴′ 𝐵′ parallel to AB. Further 𝐴′ 𝐵′ must be
an integral multiple of the primitive translation vector 𝑎
Or 𝐴′ 𝐵′ = 𝑞 𝑎 , where q is an integer.

Now, 𝐴′ 𝐵′ = 𝑞 𝑎 = 𝑅1′ − 𝑅2′


𝜋 𝜋
= 𝑎 + 𝑎 sin 𝜃 − 2 + 𝑎 sin 𝜃 − 2
𝜋
= 𝑎 + 2 𝑎 sin 𝜃 − 2
= 𝑎 1 − 2 cos 𝜃

1−𝑞 𝜋
∴ q = 1 − 2 cos 𝜃 or cos 𝜃 = 𝜃−
2 2

As cos 𝜃 ≤ 1, the above relation can be satisfied only when q=3, 2, 1, 0, -1 or θ =


2𝜋 2𝜋 2𝜋 2𝜋 2𝜋
, , , & 1 or n = 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 only.
2 3 4 6

Thus we find that a crystal can have only 1-, 2-, 3-, 4- and 6-fold axis of rotation or
symmetry and cannot have five fold symmetry.
Fig.: Ten two dimensional point groups consisting of rotation and reflection symmetry operations illustrated
using notched wheel [Coefficient represent rotational symmetry and the fist m represents reflection symmetry
(plane parallel to the rotation axis) and the 2nd m represents another reflection symmetry (plane perpendicular to
the rotation axis)]
Bragg’s law

W.H. Bragg and W.L. Bragg studied the diffraction of X-rays in detail. W.L.
Bragg considered that when monochromatic X-rays impinge upon the atoms
in the crystal lattice, each atom acts as a source of scattered radiation of the
same wavelength.

The crystal acts as a series of parallel reflecting planes. Thus X-rays would
be reflected according to ordinary laws of reflection and the planes would
reflect X-rays at all angles. X-rays that penetrate more deeply into the
crystal are reflected from the lower planes and thus several beams of X-rays
reflected from various planes are obtained.

The intensity of the reflected beam at certain angles will be maximum


where the two reflected waves from two different planes have a phase
difference equal to an integral multiple of the wavelength of X-rays, while
at some other angles, the intensity of the reflected X-ray beam will be
minimum.
Consider a beam of monochromatic X-rays of wavelength λ incident on a
crystal and after reflection from the two plans goes along AE and BF
respectively.
E

Let the crystal spacing between the two planes be 𝑑 and 𝜃 the glancing angle.
The path difference between the reflected waves along BC and EF
= 𝐶𝐵 + 𝐵𝐷
𝐶𝐵
In the ∆ 𝐴𝐶𝐵, sin 𝜃 = , 𝑂𝑟, 𝐶𝐵 = 𝐴𝐵 sin 𝜃 = 𝑑 sin 𝜃
𝐴𝐵
Similarly, 𝐵𝐷 = 𝑑 sin 𝜃

∴ Path difference = 2𝑑 sin 𝜃

If this path difference is an integral multiple of wavelength, then


constructive interference will occur between the reflected beams and they
will reinforce with each other.

Therefore, for the reflected beam to be of maximum intensity when

2𝑑 sin 𝜃 = 𝑛𝜆, 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑛 = 1, 2, 3 𝑒𝑡𝑐 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑚.

This is Bragg’s equation and represents Bragg’s law.

[From the equation, it is clear that if the wavelength of X-rays, which


produces intense maxima at a glancing angle 𝜃 is known, then the distance
between atomic planes of a crystal can be calculated. Similarly if 𝑑 is
known, 𝜆 can be calculated].
Some problems
(1) A beam of X-rays is incident on a NaCl crystal (lattice constant = 2.82Å). The first order
Bragg’s reflection from (100) plane is observed at a glancing angle of 8° 35’. What is the
wavelength of X-ray? At what angles would the second and third order Bragg reflection occur?
(2) X-rays of wavelength 0.71Å are reflected from the (100) face of a rock salt crystal whose
lattice constant is 2.84 Å. Calculate the glancing angle corresponding to second order
diffraction.
(3) For a certain b.c.c. crystal, the (110) planes have separation of 1.181Å. These (110) planes are
irradiated with X-rays of wavelength 1.540 Å. How many orders of Bragg reflections can be
observed in this case?
(4) Calculate the glancing angle on the cube (110) of a rock salt crystal (a= 2.81Å) corresponding
to second order diffraction maximum for the X-rays of wavelength 0.71Å.
(5) A diffraction pattern is obtained for lead with radiations of wavelength 1.54Å. The (220)
reflection is observed at Bragg angle, 32°. What is the lattice parameter of lead and the radius
of the atom?

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