Miller Indices

MILLER INDICES
PROCEDURE FOR FINDING MILLER INDICES

DETERMINATION OF MILLER INDICES
IMPORTANT FEATURES OF MILLER INDICES
CRYSTAL DIRECTIONS
SEPARATION BETWEEN LATTICE PLANES
PH 0101 UNIT 4 LECTURE 2
MILLER INDICES
The crystal lattice may be regarded as made
up of an infinite set of parallel equidistant

planes passing through the lattice points
which are known as lattice planes.
In simple terms, the planes passing through
lattice points are called lattice planes.
For a given lattice, the lattice planes can be
chosen in a different number of ways.
MILLER INDICES
DIFFERENT LATTICE PLANES
MILLER INDICES
The orientation of planes or faces in a crystal can be
described in terms of their intercepts on the three
axes.
Miller introduced a system to designate a plane in a
crystal.
He introduced a set of three numbers to specify a
plane in a crystal.
This set of three numbers is known as Miller Indices
of the concerned plane.
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MILLER INDICES
Miller indices is defined as the reciprocals of
the intercepts made by the plane on the three
axes.
MILLER INDICES
Procedure for finding Miller Indices
Step 1: Determine the intercepts of the plane
along the axes X,Y and Z in terms of
the lattice constants a,b and c.
Step 2: Determine the reciprocals of these
numbers.
MILLER INDICES
Step 3: Find the least common denominator (lcd)
and multiply each by this lcd.
Step 4:The result is written in paranthesis.This is

called the `Miller Indices of the plane in
the form (h k l).
This is called the `Miller Indices of the plane in the form
(h k l).
ILLUSTRATION
PLANES IN A CRYSTAL
Plane ABC has intercepts of 2 units along X-axis, 3

units along Y-axis and 2 units along Z-axis.
ILLUSTRATION
DETERMINATION OF MILLER INDICES
Step 1:The intercepts are 2,3 and 2 on the three axes.
Step 2:The reciprocals are 1/2, 1/3 and 1/2.

Step 3:The least common denominator is 6.
Multiplying each reciprocal by lcd,
we get, 3,2 and 3.
Step 4:Hence Miller indices for the plane ABC is (3 2 3)
MILLER INDICES
For the cubic crystal especially, the important features of Miller
indices are,
A plane which is parallel to any one of the co-ordinate axes
has an intercept of infinity (). Therefore the Miller index for
that axis is zero; i.e. for an intercept at infinity, the
corresponding index is zero.
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EXAMPLE
( 1 0 0 ) plane
Plane parallel to Y and Z axes
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EXAMPLE
In the above plane, the intercept along X axis is 1 unit.

The plane is parallel to Y and Z axes. So, the intercepts
along Y and Z axes are .
Now the intercepts are 1, and .
The reciprocals of the intercepts are = 1/1, 1/ and 1/.
Therefore the Miller indices for the above plane is (1 0 0).
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MILLER INDICES
A plane passing through the origin is defined in terms of a
parallel plane having non zero intercepts.
All equally spaced parallel planes have same Miller
indices i.e. The Miller indices do not only define a particular
plane but also a set of parallel planes. Thus the planes
whose intercepts are 1, 1,1; 2,2,2; -3,-3,-3 etc., are all
represented by the same set of Miller indices.
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MILLER INDICES
It is only the ratio of the indices which is important in this
notation. The (6 2 2) planes are the same as (3 1 1) planes.
If a plane cuts an axis on the negative side of the origin,
corresponding index is negative. It is represented by a bar,
like (1 0 0). i.e. Miller indices (1 0 0) indicates that the
plane has an intercept in the ve X axis.
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MILLER INDICES OF SOME IMPORTANT PLANES
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CRYSTAL DIRECTIONS
In crystal analysis, it is essential to indicate certain

directions inside the crystal.
A direction, in general may be represented in terms of

three axes with reference to the origin.In crystal system,
the line joining the origin and a lattice point represents
the direction of the lattice point.
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CRYSTAL DIRECTIONS
To find the Miller indices of a direction,

Choose a perpendicular plane to that direction.
Find the Miller indices of that perpendicular plane.
The perpendicular plane and the direction have
the same Miller indices value.
Therefore, the Miller indices of the perpendicular

plane is written within a square bracket to
represent the Miller indices of the direction like [ ].
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Miller Indices

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MILLER INDICES

PROCEDURE FOR FINDING MILLER INDICES

PH 0101 UNIT 4 LECTURE 2

up of an infinite set of parallel equidistant

PH 0101 UNIT 4 LECTURE 2

DIFFERENT LATTICE PLANES

PH 0101 UNIT 4 LECTURE 2

PH 0101 UNIT 4 LECTURE 2

PH 0101 UNIT 4 LECTURE 2

Step 4:The result is written in paranthesis.This is

PH 0101 UNIT 4 LECTURE 2

Plane ABC has intercepts of 2 units along X-axis, 3

Step 2:The reciprocals are 1/2, 1/3 and 1/2.

PH 0101 UNIT 4 LECTURE 2

PH 0101 UNIT 4 LECTURE 2

In the above plane, the intercept along X axis is 1 unit.

PH 0101 UNIT 4 LECTURE 2

MILLER INDICES OF SOME IMPORTANT PLANES

PH 0101 UNIT 4 LECTURE 2

In crystal analysis, it is essential to indicate certain

A direction, in general may be represented in terms of

PH 0101 UNIT 4 LECTURE 2

To find the Miller indices of a direction,

Therefore, the Miller indices of the perpendicular

PH 0101 UNIT 4 LECTURE 2

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