MATERIALS SCIENCE

Part of & AALearner’s Guide

Learner’s Guide
ENGINEERING
AN INTRODUCTORY E-BOOK
Anandh Subramaniam & Kantesh Balani
Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur- 208016
Email: anandh@iitk.ac.in, URL: home.iitk.ac.in/~anandh
http://home.iitk.ac.in/~anandh/E-book.htm
Mystery of the missing entries in the Bravais List!
 Few illustrations

 Another point of view:

There are 7 crystal systems (with 7 preferred unit cells).
Each of them can “can have” P (/S), I, F, C type lattice (4 types).
Hence the “potential” number is (7  4) = 28.
But 14 of these are only distinct.

Points to note:
 Every lattice that you can construct is present somewhere in the list  the issue is where
to put them.
 Concept of choice of unit cell is also invoked along with the classification of Bravais
lattices.
 The factors which are taken to into account are (like for the unit cell):
 Symmetry
 Size.
 The symbol ‘P’ is used for ‘simple’ lattices  this is very confusing!
This ‘P’ does not mean primitive (primitive is a term associated with unit cells and not
lattices). It should have been ‘S’.
 Mystery of the missing entries in the Bravais List! What we choose
P I F C
1 Cubic Cube    

UC-1

But then Cubic crystals need not have any 4-fold axes!!
Hence Cannot be called Cubic (cubic lattices do need to have!)

Hence even though this lattice remains as it is  it is called Simple Tetragonal lattice
(which is smaller in size).
 Note that this simple tetragonal cell
has a specific c/a ratio of (2)
(while in general simple tetragonal
cells can have any c/a ratio).
 Actually UC-1 (above) is a C-
centred tetragonal cell!
 We are justified in calling this
Symmetry is the
lattice a simple tetragonal lattice
issue here
as it has one 4-fold symmetry axis.
Mystery of the missing entries in the Bravais List! What we choose
P I F C
2 Tetragonal Square Prism (general height)   

Smaller sized Body Centred Cell is chosen

FCT = BCT
Face Centred Tetragonal = Body Centred Tetragonal

Size is the issue

here
Mystery of the missing entries in the Bravais List! What we choose
P I F C
2 Tetragonal Square Prism (general height)   

Smaller sized Simple Cell is chosen

CCT = ST
C Centred Tetragonal = Simple Tetragonal
 Mystery of the missing entries in the Bravais List!
P I F C
4 Hexagonal 120 Rhombic Prism  

Face Centred Orthorhombic

Putting a lattice point at body centre

destroys the 6-fold axis

Hence body centred

hexagonal lattice NOT
possible

Continued…
 Continued…
In fact not even the 3-fold
survives and the lattice type is
Face Centred Orthorhombic

Note: there is no remnant 3-fold either (if there were one then
A B, but there is no lattice point at B (at z = ½)).

Continued…
Mystery of the missing entries in the Bravais List!
P I F C
4 Hexagonal 120 Rhombic Prism  

Body Centred Orthorhombic

Putting a lattice point at body centre

destroys the 6-fold axis
 Continued…
In fact not even the 3-fold
survives and the lattice type is
Body Centred Orthorhombic

Note: there is no remnant 3-fold either (if there were one then
A B C, but there is no lattice point at C (at z = ½)).

Four unit cells are shaded in yellow colour

Not all lattice points are shown

BCO unit cell

 Mystery of the missing entries in the Bravais List! P I F C
4 Hexagonal 120 Rhombic Prism  

Simple Orthorhombic
Putting a lattice point at
body centre
destroys the 6-fold axis

In fact not even the 3-fold

survives and the lattice type is
Simple Orthorhombic

Note: there is no remnant 3-fold either (if there were one then
A B, but there is no lattice point at C (at z = 0)).
Mystery of the missing entries in the Bravais List! & what we don’t

Cubic F  Tetragonal I
(not chosen)

As the FCC lattice has higher symmetry than the BCT cell
(the one with higher symmetry is chosen)
Some examples of the allowed and disallowed transfers

Crystal system Bravais Lattices  C-centred cubic does not exist it is reclassified
Cubic P I F into simple tetragonal.
x  FCC remains (i.e. it is not classified as BCT)
Tetragonal P I FCC has cubic symmetry (with three 4-folds
rotation axes along the <111>).
Orthorhombic P I F C  Face Centred Tetragonal (FCT) is reclassified as
Hexagonal P Body Centred Tetragonal (BCT) smaller
reference unit cell.
Trigonal P  C-centred Tetragonal (CCT) is reclassified into
Simple Tetragonal (ST)  smaller reference unit
Monoclinic P C
cell.
Triclinic P  In hexgonal: BCH FCO, FCH BCO,
CCH SO.