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SINGLE
CRYSTALS
· To understand
crystal structure several questions must be answered.
-
What spatial arrays of atoms can exist in crystals?
-
What
is the effect of chemistry and bonding type on the structure?
-
What
is the smallest unit that shows the full chemistry and symmetry of the
crystal?
A
way to think about these questions is to consider the crystal as composed
of two entities:
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE = LATTICE
+ BASIS
· The LATTICE is a three dimensional array
of points that fills all space.
· The BASIS is the
chemistry that is put on each lattice point with identical composition
and orientation.
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