Physics of Materials:

Miller Index
To understand Crystal Plane/Face

Dr. Anurag Srivastava

Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Indian Institute of Information Technology and
Manegement, Gwalior

Physics of Materials
Crystal Faces
 Common crystal faces relate simply to
surfaces of unit cell
 Often parallel to the faces of the unit cell
 Isometric minerals often are cubes
 Hexagonal minerals often are hexagons
 Other faces are often simple diagonals – at
uniform angles – to the unit cell faces

Physics of Materials ABV- IIITM-Gwalior (MP) India

 These relationships were discovered in 18th
century and codified into laws:
 Steno’s law
 Law of Bravais
 Law of Huay

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Steno’s Law
 Angle between equivalent faces on a crystal
of some minerals are always the same
 Can understand why
 Faces relate to unit cell, crystallographic axes,
and angular relationships between faces and
axes
 Strictly controlled by symmetry of the crystal
system and class of that mineral

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Law of Bravais
 Common crystal faces are parallel to lattice
planes that have high lattice node densities

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All faces parallel unit
cell – high density of Monoclinic crystal
lattice nodes
T has intermediate
density of lattice
c t nodes – fairly
common and
pronounced face on
mineral

Faces A, B, and C
b intersect only one
a axis – principal faces

Face T intersects two

axes a and c, but at
same unit lengths

Face Q intersects A
and C at ratio 2:1

Physics of Materials
Q has low density, rare face
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Fig. 2-21
Law of Haüy
 Crystal faces intersect axes at simple
integers of unit cell distances on the
crystallographic axes

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 Lengths can be absolute or relative:
 Absolute distance - lengths have units (typically
Å) and are not integers
 Unit cell distances - typically small integers, e.g.,
1 to 3, occasionally higher
 1 unit length is the absolute length of
crystallographic axis
 Allows a naming system to describe planes in
the mineral (faces, cleavage, atomic planes
etc.)
Miller Indices
Physics of Materials ABV- IIITM-Gwalior (MP) India
Miller Indices
 Shorthand notation for where the faces
intercept the crystallographic axes
 Miller Index
 Set of three integers (hkl)
 Inversely proportional to where face or
crystallographic plane (e.g. cleavage) intercepts
axes

Physics of Materials ABV- IIITM-Gwalior (MP) India

 General form is (hkl) where
 h represents the a intercept
 k represents the b intercept
 l represents the c intercept
 h, k, and l are ALWAYS integers

Physics of Materials ABV- IIITM-Gwalior (MP) India

Miller Indices
Algorithm to determine Miller
Indices:

1. Determine the intercepts of

the face along the
crystallographic axes, in
terms of unit cell dimensions.
2. Take the reciprocals
3. Clear fractions
4. Reduce to lowest terms

An example of the (111) plane (h=1,

k=1, l=1) is shown on the right.

Crystal Physics ABV- IIITM-Gwalior (MP) India

Another example:

Algorithm to determine Miller

Indices:
1. Determine the intercepts of
the face along the
crystallographic axes, in
terms of unit cell dimensions.
2. Take the reciprocals
3. Clear fractions
4. Reduce to lowest terms

Crystal Physics ABV- IIITM-Gwalior (MP) India

Crystal Planes and Miller Indices
Real crystals are not infinitely large. They have surfaces. Crystal surfaces are
often related to different lattice planes. Lattice planes are characterized with
Miller indices (hkl), which are a set of integers with no common factors,
inversely proportional to the intercepts of the crystal plane along the crystal
axes:

Crystal Physics ABV- IIITM-Gwalior (MP) India

Where does a protein crystallographer see the Miller
indices?

• Common crystal faces are parallel to

lattice planes

• Each diffraction spot can be regarded

as a X-ray beam reflected from a
lattice plane, and therefore has a
unique Miller index.

Crystal Physics ABV- IIITM-Gwalior (MP) India

Common Lattice Planes in Cubic Crystals

1. When planes are parallel to certain axes, the corresponding intercepts will be ∞
and thus the reciprocals will be zeros.
2. If a plane passes through the origin, we would obtain infinity as one or more of the
Miller indices. However, we can avoid the use of infinity by translating the origin to
another equivalent lattice point since the location of the origin is entirely arbitrary.
3. Each face plane of the sc structure is entirely equivalent. These planes are
grouped together and referred to as the {100} set of planes.
4. The distance between parallel lattice planes and the concentrations of atoms in
specific planes are important parameters.

Crystal Physics ABV- IIITM-Gwalior (MP) India

 Fig. 2-22
Consider face t:

Imagine you
extend face t until
it intercepts
crystallographic
axes

Unit cell: each

side is one
“unit” length

How many unit lengths out along the crystallographic axes?

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For face t: Fig. 2-22

Axial intercepts in
terms of unit cell
lengths:
a = 12
b = 12 Face t, without the
c=6 rest of the form

Crystal Physics ABV- IIITM-Gwalior (MP) India

 Imagine the face is fit within
the unit cell so that the
maximum intercept is 1 unit
length;
The intercepts for a:b:c would
be 1:1:1/2

Miller indices are the inverse of

the intercepts
Inverting give (112) – note that
the higher the number the closer
to the origin
Fig. 2-22

Face t is the
(112) face

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 What about faces that parallel axes?
 For example, intercepts a:b:c could be 1:1:∞
 With algorithm, miller index would be:
 (hkl) = (1/1 1/1 1/∞) = (110)
 If necessary you need to clear fractions
 E.g. intercepts for a:b:c = 1:2:∞
 Invert: 1/1 1/2 1/∞
 Clear fractions: 2(1 ½ 0) = (210)

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 Some intercepts can be negative – they
intercept negative axes
 E.g. a:b:c = 1:-1:½
 Here (hkl) = 1/1:1/-1:1/½ = (112)

Crystal Physics ABV- IIITM-Gwalior (MP) India

 c It is very easy
to visualize
the location of
a simple face
given miller
-b index, or to
b derive a miller
index from
a simple faces

-c

Fig. 2-23
Crystal Physics ABV- IIITM-Gwalior (MP) India
Hexagonal Miller index
 There need to be 4 intercepts (hkil)
 h = a1
 k = a2
 i = a3
 l=c
 Two a axes have to have opposite sign of
other axis so that
 h+k+i=0
 Possible to report the index two ways:
 (hkil)
 (hkl)

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(1010) (1120) (1121)
(100) (110) (111) Klein and
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Hurlbut Fig. 2-33
Assigning Miller indices
 Prominent (and common) faces have small
integers for Miller Indices
 Faces that cut only one axis
 (100), (010), (001) etc
 Faces that cut two axes
 (110), (101), (011) etc
 Faces that cut three axes
 (111)
 Called unit face

Crystal Physics ABV- IIITM-Gwalior (MP) India