Book Description

This book contains a unified approach to crystallography and the structural imperfections and defects found within crystals. The reason the authors chose for treating these two subjects together was that the study of the first is necessary for a proper appreciation of the second. Understanding the idea of lattice and of the crystal classes firstly will help its relevance to the study of imperfections, defects, and phase transformations in the second part of the book. Split into two parts: the "Structure of the Crystalline Solids" and the "Imperfections and Defects in Crystals", and each broken into subchapters, this volume combines the classical and exact description of the symmetry of a perfect crystal with the possible geometries of the major defects-dislocations, stacking faults, point, line, surface and volume defects, twins, and the effects of martensitic transformation in iron. The first part presents a systematic treatment of the basics of crystallography, discussing space lattice, unit cells, symmetry, point groups, crystal systems in terms of Miller indices for crystallographic points, directions, and planes, and zone axis, as well. A number of important concepts such as packing factor, atomic radius, linear, planar, and volume density, polymorphism, allotropes, interstitial sites in cubic and hexagonal structures, and structural features of the most representative compounds used nowadays in a myriad of applications are introduced and carefully explained. In the second part, the authors guide the reader in a step-by-step way through point, line, planar, and volume defects, with an emphasis on their structural properties.A large amount of the latest critically evaluated data for the properties of all elements on the periodic table of the elements, including hundreds of up-to-date crystal structure data are presented. Each chapter contains the logical presentation of concepts supported by suitably chosen examples and worked problems. Hundreds of illustrations within the text help the reader visualize crystal structures and mathematical objects, supporting important topics, but also illustrating crystalline structures found in thousands of compounds. A concise summary and plenty of review questions and problems at the end reinforce the important key points.