Electrical Properties of

Materials
Lecture 2
Chap 1
 In this lecture we will going to
discuss ….
 Crystal structure,
 lattice, basis, unit cell
 Face centered cubic (FCC), Body
Centered Cubic (BCC)

Chapter 1

From Principles of Electronic Materials and Devices, Third Edition, S.O. Kasap (© McGraw-Hill, 2005)
Recap
◦ Properties of materials
◦ Mid: main reason of different properties: structure of solids, Electrical and thermal properties, elementary of quantum physics
◦ Final: Modern theory of solids, Dielectrical properties of solids, magnetic properties of solids
◦ Others: optical properties of solids, mechanical properties of solids

◦ Examples:

◦ Electrical properties: although carbon resistors shows linear characteristics, semiconductor shows exponential characteristics

◦ Thermal properties: which materials adsorb maximum solar energy are investigated

◦ Dielectric properties: electrolyte capacitors, ceramic type capacitors shows different capacitances due to their different dielectric
constant

◦ Magnetic properties: materials having electric transformers to ferrite antennas for signal communication.
 1. Structure of Solids
CRYSTAL Amorphous – atoms are placed at random

STRUCTURES Crystalline – atoms are placed with a long-range order

Polycrystalline – atoms are placed with a localized
short-range order but without a total long-range order.
Crystal Structure
most important property of a crystal is periodicity
periodicity gives the long-range order
local bonding geometry is repeated many times at regular
interval – results in a periodic array of atoms in space
location of each atom is therefore predictable anywhere in
the crystal
nearly all metals, semiconductors and ceramics are
crystalline
Lattice and Basis
Lattice  a regular array of points in space with a
distinguishable periodicity
Basis  an identical group of atoms (or molecules) that is
placed at each lattice point identical with respect to
composition, arrangement and orientation.
Crystal = Lattice + Basis
A crystal is obtained from lattice by placing basis at each
lattice point.
 Unit Cell

most convenient small cell in a crystal

structure that carries the characteristics of
3-D unit cell the crystal
repetition of the unit cell in three
dimensions generates the whole crystal
structure

2-D unit cell

Different types of 2D unit cell

a) b)
Primitive unit cell-
one atom in unit cell,
Fig. a, b, c and d (red
color)

Non-Primitive unit
cell- more than one
atom in unit cell Fig. d
( black color)

d)
c)
2D-unit cell (SiC)C
Si
The 2D unit cells can be
constructed using Si atoms
(Purple color) or C atoms
(Brown color).
Representation of a 3D-unit cell

  by a parallelepiped

 align the x, y, and z axes with the edges of the unit cell
taking the lower-left rear corner as origin

 sides a, b, and c and angles are referred to as the lattice

parameters

x
Bravais
Lattice (3D)
 14 distinct lattices possible
in three-dimensional space

 grouped into 7 crystal

systems
Face-Centered Cubic
(FCC) Crystal

◦ (a) The crystal structure of copper is face

centered cubic (FCC). The atoms are positioned
◦ at well defined sites arranged periodically and
there is a long range order in the crystal.
◦ (b) An FCC unit cell with closed packed spheres.
◦ (c) Reduced sphere representation of the unit cell.
Examples: Ag, Al, Au, Ca, Cu,
◦ γ-Fe (>912 ˚C), Ni, Pd, Pt, Rh.
FCC Crystal
Problem
◦ Silver (Ag) has a FCC crystal structure. If the
radius R of the Ag atom is 0.1444 nm find the
lattice parameter a, the atomic concentration,
and the atomic packing factor of Silver.
How one unit cell gets 1/8th of an atom?

2 unit cells are seen by 3 unit cells are seen by

the corner red atom the corner red atom

4 unit cells are seen by

the corner red atom
How one unit cell gets 1/8th of an atom?

5 unit cells are seen by

the corner red atom 6 unit cells are seen by
the corner red atom

7 unit cells are seen by

the corner red atom
How one unit cell gets 1/8th of an atom?

8 unit cells are seen by

the corner red atom
 FCC CRYSTAL

 The face is a square of side a, and the face diagonal is √(a2 + a2) or a √ 2.
The diagonal has one atom at the center of diameter 2R, which touches two atoms centered at the corners.
The diagonal, going from corner to corner, is therefore R + 2R + R = 4R.

Thus, a √ 2 = 4R and a = 2 √ 2R.

Therefore, a = 2 √ 2 x (0.1444 nm) = 0.4084 nm.

Now, the Ag atom at each corner is shared with eight other adjoining unit cells.
Each atom at the face center is shared with the neighboring unit cell.
Therefore,
the number atoms in the unit cell = 8 corners X 1/8 atom + 6 faces X 1/2 atom = 4 atoms.

Atomic concentration,

Atomic Packing Factor ,

Body-Centered Cubic
(BCC) Crystal

Example: Alkali metals (Li, Na, K, Rb), Cr, Mo,

W, Mn, α-Fe (< 912 ˚C), β-Ti (> 882 ˚C)

Body centered cubic crystal (BCC) crystal

structure.
a) A BCC unit cell with closely packed hard
spheres representing the Fe atoms.
b) A reduced-sphere unit cell.
BCC Crystal
Problem
Iron (below 912oC) has a BCC crystal. If the
radius of the Fe atom is 0.1241 nm, find its
lattice parameter a, atomic concentration and the
APF.
 BCC CRYSTAL

Consider
  the cube diagonal. Two corner atoms and the central body atom are in contact and the length of the cube diagonal,
therefore, is 4R. And,
Therefore, a = 4/√ 3 x (0.1241 nm) = 0.2866 nm.

There are 8 corners and each corner has 1/8 th of an atom within the unit cell. In addition,
there is one full atom at the center of the unit cell.
Therefore,
the number atoms in the unit cell = 8 corners X 1/8 atom + 1 atom = 2 atoms.

Atomic concentration,

Atomic Packing Factor ,

Summary
◦ Crystal structures are three types
◦ Single Crystalline, polycrystalline, amorphous

◦ Crystalline materials are geometrically represented by lattice and real representation of lattices are basis.

◦ Crystalline materials are consisted of unit cells which represent the whole crystal.
◦ Unit cells are primitive or non primitive
◦ Unit cells can be represented by 2D or 3D

◦ Among 14 types of 3D Bravais Lattices we studied cubic systems

◦ Next class we will study hexagonal systems

◦ Three cubic crystalline systems are

◦ Simple Cubic has one atom in the unit cell
◦ Face-centered Cubic (FCC) has 4 atoms in the unit cell
◦ Body-centered Cubic (BCC) has 2 atoms in the unit cell

◦ Atomic concentration is the ratio of the number of atoms per unit volume of unit cell.

◦ Atomic packing factor is the ratio of atom number with the volume of one atom to the volume of the unit cell.
 Questions
?

From Principles of Electronic Materials and Devices, Third Edition, S.O. Kasap (© McGraw-Hill, 2005)