ES 322

Activity 1.2.2
Miller Indices

Miller Indices is a 3-dimensional coordinate system used to label the planes and directions
of atoms in a crystal. This property determines the shapes of single crystals, the
interpretation of X-ray diffraction patterns, and the movement of a dislocation, which may
determine the mechanical properties of the material. This is only applied to cubic crystal
systems through a coordinate system (h,k,l) represented with unit dimension 1 representing
side of the cube a. The conventional representation is that the origin is at (0,0,0):

For the notations of Miller Indices:

1. Points – represented by (h,k,l); note the exclusive use of commas.
2. Directions – represented by [hkl], note that commas are not used.
4. Plane – (hkl); compared to points, note that commas are not used.

One of the common function of the Miller Indices is the representation of the orientation of
the atoms in the unit cell, such as the face plane, the body diagonal, and the face diagonal:

For the Miller Indices of points in the cubic system, the 3 lattice parameters have the same
length and are all perpendicular to each other (this is the definition of cubic). So, for all cubic
crystals, “h” is the length of the cube’s edge in the x-direction. “k” is the length of the cube’s
edge in the y-direction. “l” is the length of the cube in the z-direction.

Example: The point (1,1,1) will always be the top right corner, opposite the origin, while the
point (½,½,½) will always be the center of the crystal.
For the Miller Indices of direction in the cubic system, a vector passes through the unit cell
from the origin to a lattice point. Negative values are represented by a bar on top of the
number. For directions with the origin not on (0,0,0), the following steps is followed:
1. Determine the length of the vector projection on each of the three axes, based on
(h2,k2,l2) – (h1,k1,l1) = (h2 – h1,k2 – k1,l2 – l1)
2. These three numbers are expressed as the smallest integers and negative quantities
are indicated with an overbar. Label the direction [hkl].

Example: To indicate the direction “right” in a cubic crystal, the direction should be written
as [010], while the direction “left” would be [01̅ 0].

For the Miller Indices of planes, a 3-step process is followed:

1.Find the point where the plane intersects each axis. If the plane never intersects an axis
because it is parallel to that axis, the intersection point is ∞.
2. Take the inverse of each intersection point.
3. Put those 3 values in the proper (hkl) format. Note that negatives are expressed with a
bar, and parenthesis () indicate a specific plane. There should be no commas
Example:

For Miller Indices directions, the “length” of the direction doesn’t matter, therefore it is
customary to reduce fractions. Note that values of the direction that go beyond 1 basically
means that the direction goes to a lattice point of a different unit cell. Also note that the tail
of a direction can be anywhere in a unit cell, not just on the origin.

Example: If you wanted to indicate a direction that travels ¼ up the x-axis while going all the
way across the y-axis, it’s traditional to write that as [140] instead of [¼10] by multiplying
that latter version by four until everything is a whole number.
Name: Signature:
Course & Year:

Activity 1.2.2
Miller Indices
1. Identify the Miller Indices of the following (with a basis of a=1):

a.) __________ b.) __________ c.) __________

d.) __________ e.) __________

2. Draw the following Miller indices. For planes, shade the area.
a.) (1,¾,½) b.) [110] c.) [11̅ 0]

d.) (001) e.) (111̅ )