Miller Indices for Directions and Planes

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Miller Indices
To discuss the seven crystal systems in detail, we have to establish some understanding of crystal geometry. The notation
used to describe crystals is known as “Miller indices”.

Before William H. Miller (1801-1880) devised this mathematical system for describing any crystal face or group of similar
faces (forms), there was a considerable amount of confusion due to the many different descriptive systems.

Miller applied relatively simple mathematics to the problem, and his notation has become the universal language for all
crystallography.

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 ATOM POSITIONS IN CUBIC UNIT CELLS

(a) Rectangular x, y, and z axes for locating atom positions in cubic unit cells. (b) Atom positions
in a BCC unit cell.
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Steps to determine the three directional indices:

1. Choose a point on the direction as the origin. (A vector of convenient length is positioned such that it passes
through the origin of the coordinate system. Any vector may be translated throughout the crystal lattice without
alteration, if parallelism is maintained)
2. Choose a coordinate system with axes parallel to the unit cell edges.
3. Find the coordinates of another point on the direction in terms of a, b and c
4. Reduce the coordinates to smallest integers (either by divinding or multiplying by a common factor).
5. Put the smallest integers in square brackets [ ]

100 [100]
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Steps to be followed

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Miller indices of a direction represents only the orientation of the line corresponding
to the direction and not its position

All parallel directions have same miller indices.

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Entire OA direction is represented by [112]

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 Z

D
Z CD = -1a -1b +1c

-1-11

[1ഥ ഥ1 1]

Y
O

Y
C
X

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X
 Miller indices of a family of symmetry related directions

<uvw>=[uvw] and all other directions related to [uvw] by the symmetry of the crystal

All directions along the cube edges which are equal by symmetry

Equivalent directions because of symmetry 9

CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC DIRECTIONS

y
x

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Angle between the vectors:

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Parallel directions have the same direction indices

[6ഥ 6 1ത ]

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 [3ഥ ഥ2 1]

Position coordinates for the [𝟑ഥ ഥ𝟐 𝟏] direction are obtained

by first dividing all the indices by 3, the largest index

It gives -1, 2/3, -1/3

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 MILLER INDICES FOR CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC PLANES

1. Choose a crystallographic coordinate system (parallel to edges) with origin not on the plane (If the plane passes
through the selected origin, either another parallel plane must be constructed within the unit cell by an appropriate
translation, or a new origin must be established at the corner of another unit cell.)

2. Determine the intercepts of the plane in terms of the crystallographic x, y, and z axes for a unit cube. These intercepts
may be fractions.

3. Form the reciprocals of these intercepts.

4. Clear fractions and determine the smallest set of whole numbers that are in the
same ratio as the intercepts. These whole numbers are the Miller indices of the
crystallographic plane and are enclosed in parentheses without the use of commas. The notation (hkl) is used to
indicate Miller indices in a general sense, where h, k, and l are the Miller indices of a cubic crystal plane for the x, y, and
z axes, respectively.

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Steps to be followed

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 Z Plane ABCD

Origin O

Intercepts 1∞ ∞

Reciprocals 10 0
D C

Small Integers 100

Y
O Miller Indices (1 0 0)

Zero represents that the plane is parallel to the

X A B Corresponding axis

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Plane EBCO

Origin O’

Intercepts 1 -1 ∞

Reciprocals 1 -1 0

Small Integers 1 -1 0

Miller Indices (𝟏 ഥ𝟏 𝟎)

Zero represents that the plane is parallel to the

Corresponding axis

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 Z
Miller indices of a plane specifies only its orientation in
space not its position

All parallel planes have same miller indices

hkl = ( ഥℎ ഥ𝑘 ത𝑙)

Y
O 100 = ( ഥ1 0 0)

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Miller indices of a family of symmetry related planes

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 Top and bottom face = Squares

Vertical faces = Rectangle

• Miller indices of a plane specifies only

its orientation in space, not its position
• All parallel planes have the same miller
indices
• {hkl}=(hkl) and all other directions
related to (uvw) by the symmetry of
the crystal
• All the faces of the cube are equivalent
to each other by symmetry

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Summary of Notation convention for Miller Indices

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An important relationship for the cubic crystal system, and only the cubic system, is that
the direction indices of a direction perpendicular to a crystal plane are the same as the
Miller indices of that plane.

For example, the [100] direction is perpendicular to the (100) crystal plane.

(h k l) plane Perpendicular to [h k l] direction

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 Weiss Zone law
Condition for a direction [uvw] to lie in ,(is parallel to ) a plane (hkl)
According Weiss zone law, if a plane (hkl) contains a direction [uvw],
hu+kv+lw=0
Proof with e.g. Direction common to plane (111) and plane (11-1)

Geometric Method (By drawing) Algebraic method

• Let the common direction be

[uvw] to (111) and (11-1)

• u+v+w=0, u+v-w=0

• u=-v , w=0

• [-v v 0] = [-1 1 0] 26
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