Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Department of Materials Science and Engineering 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge MA 021394307

3.012 Fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering Fall 2003

Example Problems From Recitation (Week of 10/6/03)

Problem 1: Statement
A tetragonal crystal has three orthogonal axes with lattice constants a1 , a2 , and c equal to 3, 3, and 7 A respectively. (a) Make a sketch of one or more unit cells of this crystal and outline planes with Miller indices of (110), (321), and (011). (b) Find the angles between each of these pairs of directions in this tetragonal crystal: 1. [110] and [110] 2. [110] and [101] 3. [100] and [111]

Problem 1: Solution
Part (a)

Figure 1: Planes for part (a)

Part (b)
To nd the angles between the direction we can use the dot product since the axes are orthogonal. However, since it is a tetragonal crystal, all the axes are not the same length. We must scale them with the correct values for the lattice constants.

1. A = [110] = a + ay + 0 x z B = [110] = a ay + 0 z x A B = a2 a2 0 We can nd the angle since we also know that: A B = |A||B| cos 0 = |A||B| cos cos = 0 = 90 2. A = [110] = a + ay + 0 x z B = [101] = a 0 cz x y A B = a2 a2 = |A||B| cos = ( 2a2 )( a2 + c2 ) cos 32 a2 = cos1 = cos1 (a 2)( a2 + c2 (3 2)( 32 + 72 = cos1 (0.27853) = 73.83 3. A = [100] = a + 0 + 0 x y z B = [111 = a + ay + cz x A B = a2 a2 = |A||B| cos = (a 2a2 + c2 ) cos a2 32 = cos1 = cos1 (a 2a2 + c2 ) (3 2 32 + 72 ) = cos1 (0.36650) = 68.50

Problem 2: Statement
The rst three diffraction peaks of a metal powder are 2 = 44.4 , 64.6 , 81.7 using CuK radiation ( = 1.542A). Is the metal Cr, Ni, Ag, or W?

Problem 2: Solution
First we need to look up the crystal structures and lattice constants for these four metals. Cr Ni Ag W BCC FCC FCC BCC 2.885A 3.524A 4.806A 3.165A

We know the relationship between , d, and , its just Braggs Law: = 2dhkl sin And we also know that for a cubic crystal the interplanar spacing is related to h, k, and l by: d= a h2 + k 2 + l 2

Putting that together we get: =2 a 2 + k 2 + l2 h ( sin

a=

h2 + k 2 + l 2 ) 2 sin

Now we have to gure out what are the rst three reections in BCC and FCC Reection 1 2 3 BCC (h+k+l=even) 110 200 211 FCC (h,k,l all even or all odd) 111 200 220

Now for each crystal system, lets plug in our values of for each reection and nd out what the lattice parameter should be. Starting with FCC, the rst reection would be 111, so: 1.542( 12 + 12 + 12 ) a= = 3.534A 2 sin(22.2) This is pretty close to the lattice constant for Ni, but we have to try the next reection to make sure these reections would be consistent with an FCC crystal. The next reection would be 200: 1.542( 22 + 02 + 02 ) a= = 2.8856A 2 sin(32.3)

Uh oh! These two values do not match, meaning that these reection cannot be from an FCC crystal. Lets try BCC. The rst reection there would be 110: 1.542( 12 + 12 + 02 ) = 2.8858A a= 2 sin(22.2) This is pretty close to the lattice constant of Cr. Lets continue and do the other two reections just to make sure. Second we would have 200: 1.542( 22 + 02 + 02 ) a= = 2.8856A 2 sin(32.3) This is still consistent with the rst reection. Finally we would have 211: 1.542( 22 + 12 + 12 ) a= = 2.8873A 2 sin(40.85) Thats pretty close. It would be safe to say that this metal is BCC and is most likely Cr.