Preface
Crystallography, an interdisciplinary subject, plays an important role in a wide
range of subjects of science and technology. Its rudimentary knowledge is essential
for beginners in physics, chemistry, mathematics, molecular biology, geology,
metallurgy, and particularly to materials science and mineralogy. Its relationship
with physics can be understood in terms of the following examples:
1. All conservation laws in physics are essentially interrelated with symmetry
operations.
2. Symmetry considerations allow us to establish Pauli’s exclusion principle.
3. Periodic potential of the lattice is responsible for the creation of allowed and
forbidden energy bands. Accordingly, materials can be classified as conductor,
semi-conductor and insulator depending on the amount of band gap.
4. Relationships between the magnitudes of measurable parameters give rise to the
tensor components of different physical properties in crystals. This list can be
elaborated further.
In a similar manner, its relationship with other subjects can also be listed.
The topic “numerical problems in crystallography” therefore attaches even
greater importance as the experience of solving numerical problems is extremely
helpful in understanding different topics of crystallography. This book aims at
making people understand different topics of crystallography which are conceptual
in nature through solving numerical problems.
The author felt the need to write this book in view of the following reasons:
(i) the difficult nature of topics and the non-availability of any other book of this
type in India (and perhaps in the international market),
(ii) the growing number of competitive examinations at various levels conducted
by universities, where questions are generally of numerical in nature,
(iii) experience of teaching and research suggests that crystallography is a conceptual subject and needs a fair amount of imagination for understanding 3D
images.
v
Crystallography, an interdisciplinary subject, plays an important role in a wide
range of subjects of science and technology. Its rudimentary knowledge is essential
for beginners in physics, chemistry, mathematics, molecular biology, geology,
metallurgy, and particularly to materials science and mineralogy. Its relationship
with physics can be understood in terms of the following examples:
1. All conservation laws in physics are essentially interrelated with symmetry
operations.
2. Symmetry considerations allow us to establish Pauli’s exclusion principle.
3. Periodic potential of the lattice is responsible for the creation of allowed and
forbidden energy bands. Accordingly, materials can be classified as conductor,
semi-conductor and insulator depending on the amount of band gap.
4. Relationships between the magnitudes of measurable parameters give rise to the
tensor components of different physical properties in crystals. This list can be
elaborated further.
In a similar manner, its relationship with other subjects can also be listed.
The topic “numerical problems in crystallography” therefore attaches even
greater importance as the experience of solving numerical problems is extremely
helpful in understanding different topics of crystallography. This book aims at
making people understand different topics of crystallography which are conceptual
in nature through solving numerical problems.
The author felt the need to write this book in view of the following reasons:
(i) the difficult nature of topics and the non-availability of any other book of this
type in India (and perhaps in the international market),
(ii) the growing number of competitive examinations at various levels conducted
by universities, where questions are generally of numerical in nature,
(iii) experience of teaching and research suggests that crystallography is a conceptual subject and needs a fair amount of imagination for understanding 3D
images.
v