Professor of Physics, University of Dhaka and Part Time Teacher of Physics Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) IUT Crystal Defects Any deviations from the perfect periodic arrangement in a crystal is said to be imperfections or defects
Examples: Doping impurity into intrinsic semiconductor Adding alloying elements into metal, etc.
Crystal defects influence many properties of crystals
Crystal defects influence many properties of crystals Mechanical and plastic properties (e.g. mechanical strength, rigidity, ductility, etc.)
Electrical conductivity, hysteresis loss of ferromagnets
Color, luminescence of many crystals arise from impurities and
imperfections
Optical transmittance, absorbance, refractive index, band gap,
etc.
Atomic diffusion may be accelerated enormously by impurities
or imperfections Classification of Imperfections/Defects in crystalline solids (in terms of their dimension)
1. Point imperfections (0 D defects)
2. Line imperfections (1 D defects)
3. Plane or surface imperfections (2 D defects)
4. Volume imperfections (3 D defects)
Shottky Defect Frenkel Defect 𝑛 = 𝑁𝑒 −𝐸Τ𝑘𝑇 Practice Problem ## If the average energy required to create a vacancy in a monatomic solid is 1.5 eV, calculate the ratio of vacancies at 1500 K to those at 300 K under equilibrium conditions.
𝑛1 = 𝑁𝑒 −𝐸Τ𝑘𝑇1 … … … … … … … . . (1)
𝑛2 = 𝑁𝑒 −𝐸Τ𝑘𝑇2 … … … … … … … . . (2)
(1)/(2)gives us,
𝑛1 𝑒 −𝐸Τ𝑘𝑇1 = −𝐸Τ𝑘𝑇 =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 𝑛2 𝑒 2 Line Defects or Dislocations Line Defects Edge and Screw Dislocations Edge Dislocations Volume or Bulk Defects
Voids: Voids are regions where there are a large number of atoms missing from the lattice. Voids can occur for a number of reasons. When voids occur due to air bubbles becoming trapped when a material solidifies, it is commonly called pores.
Cavity: When a void occurs due to the shrinkage of a material as it
solidifies, it is called cavity.
Inclusions: A type of bulk defect occurs when impurity atoms cluster
together to form small regions of a different phase. The term ‘phase’ refers to that region of space occupied by a physically homogeneous material. These regions are often called precipitates or inclusions.
There are many more volume defects like cracks, precipitate, etc. 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬
1. Solid State Physics: M. A. Wahab
2. Elementary Solid State Physics: Principles and Applications: M. A. Omar 3. Introduction to Solid State Physics: Charles Kittel
