

SRI AKILANDESWARI WOMEN’S COLLEGE,

WANDIWASH
CRYSTAL DEFECTS
Class : PG PHYSICS

Mr. S.SELVAKUMAR
Head & Assistant Professor
Department of Physics

SWAMY ABEDHANADHA EDUCATIONAL TRUST, WANDIWASH

 CLASSIFICATION OF CRYSTAL DEFECTS BASED ON DIMENSIONALITY

POINT
DEFECT
(0D)
LINE DEFECT
(1D)
 SURFACE
DEFECT
(2D)
VOLUME
DEFECT
(3D)

VACANCY GRAIN
EDGE PERCIPITATES
DEFECT BOUNDARIES
DISLOCATION

INTERSTITIAL TILT
DISPERSANTS
DEFECT BOUNDARIES
SCREW
DISLOCATION
FRENKEL TWIN
INCLUSION
DEFECT BOUNDARIES

SCHOTTKY STACKING VOIDS/

DEFECT FAULTS CRACKS
 POINT DEFECTS

 Point defects are imperfect point like regions in the
crystal and hence referred to as zero dimensional
imperfections.
 Point defects are accounted for when the
crystallization process occurs at a very fast rate.
 These defects mainly happen due to deviation in the
arrangement of constituting particles. In a crystalline
solid, when the ideal arrangement of solids is
distorted around a point/ atom it is called a point
defect.
CLASSIFICATION OF POINT DEFECT

VACANCY
DEFECT
NON IONIC
CRYSTALS
INTERSTITIAL
DEFECT

FRENKEL
IONIC DEFECT
CRYSTALS
SCHOTTKY
DEFECT
 POINT DEFECTS

1.Stoichiometric Defect:
In this kind of point defect, the ratio of positive
and negative ions (Stoichiometric) and electrical
neutrality of a solid is not disturbed. Sometimes it is
also known as intrinsic or thermodynamic defects.
Fundamentally, they are of two types:
 Vacancy Defect
 Interstitial Defect
 VACANCY DEFECT

When an atom is not present at their lattice
sites, then that lattice site is vacant and it
creates a vacancy defect. Due to this, the
density of a substance decreases.
INTERSTITIAL DEFECTS

It is a defect in which an atom or molecule
occupies the intermolecular spaces in
crystals. In this defect, the density of the
substance increases.
 2. Frenkel Defect:

 In ionic solids generally, the
smaller ion (cation) moves out
of its place and occupies an
intermolecular space. In this
case, a vacancy defect is created
on its original position and the
interstitial defect is experienced
at its new position.
 It is also known as dislocation
defect.
 The density of a substance
remains unchanged.
 It happens when there is a huge
difference in the size of anions
and cations.
 Example: ZnS and AgCl.
 3. Schottky Defect:

 This kind of vacancy defects is
found in Ionic Solids. But in
ionic compounds, we need to
balance the electrical neutrality
of the compound so an equal
number of anions and cations
will be missing from the
compound.
 It reduces the density of the
substance.
 In this, the size of cations and
anions are of almost the same.
 LINE DEFECTS

 Line defects, or dislocations, are one-dimensional
defects that occur when there is a misalignment or
distortion in the crystal lattice.
 Line defects are the irregularities or deviations from
ideal arrangement in entire rows of lattice points.
 Dislocation affects the mechanical properties.
 The most important line defects are
(i) Edge dislocations
(ii) Screw dislocations
 EDGE DISLOCATION

 This type of dislocation is formed by adding an extra
partial plane of atoms to the crystal.
 An edge dislocation in its cross section is essentially
the edge of an extra half plane in the crystal lattice
and the lattice around dislocation is elastically
distorted.
 It can be classified into
Positive Edge Dislocation
Negative Edge Dislocation
 TYPES OF EDGE DISLOCATION

 POSITIVE EDGE  NEGATIVE EDGE
DISLOCATION: DISLOCATION:

When an extra half When an extra half

plane is inserted from the plane is inserted from the
top, the defect so bottom, the defect is
produced is represented produced represented by
by inverted Tee and is T ( straight Tee) and is
called positive edge called negative edge
dislocation. dislocation.
 SCREW DISLOCATION

 Screw dislocations arises
from a displacement of
the atoms in one part of
a crystal relative to the
rest of the crystal
forming spiral ramp
around the dislocation
line.
 Using Burgers vector we
can determine the
magnitude and direction
of the screw dislocation.
 SURFACE DEFECTS

 Surface and grain boundary imperfections arise from a
change in the stacking of atomic planes on or across a
boundary and so are called as two-dimensional
imperfections.
 Basically surface imperfections are of two types namely
external and internal surface defects.
 Surface defects are associated with boundaries that are
separate regions of the materials and have different
crystal structure.
 EXTERNAL SURFACE DEFECT: The external surface
defect of a crystal is an imperfection in itself, as the
atomic bonds do not extend beyond the surface.


 INTERNAL SURFACE DEFECT: They arise from a

change in the stacking of atomic planes across the
boundary.
 Some important internal surface imperfections are
(i) Grain Boundaries: Grain boundary imperfections
are those surface imperfections that separate crystals of


different orientation in a polycrystalline aggregation
during nucleation or crytalization.
(ii) Tilt Boundaries: Tilt boundary is also called as low
angle boundary as the orientation difference between two
neighbouring grains is less than 10 degree.
(iii) Twin boundaries: Twin boundaries occur in pairs
such that the orientation change introduced by one
boundary is restored by the other boundary.The region
between the pair of boundaries is termed as twinned
region.
(iv) Stacking Faults: It is a discrepancy in the packing
sequence of the layers of atoms although all lattice sites are
occupied.
 VOLUME DEFECTS

 Volume defect is a three-dimensional defect.
 Volume defects such as cracks may arise when there
is only small electrostatic dissimilarity between
stacking sequences of closed packed planes in
metals.
 Moreover when clusters of atoms are missing and a
large vacancy arises which is also a volume
imperfection.
 Foreign particle inclusions, large voids or non-
crystalline region with the dimensions of atleast 10 to
30 are also called volume imperfections.
TYPES OF VOLUME DEFECTS

 PERCIPITATES: Fraction of a micron in size.
 DISPERSANTS: May be large precipitates, grains,
or polygranular particles distributed through
microstructure.
 INCLUSIONS: Foreign particles or large precipitate
particles; undesirable; harmful
 VOIDS: Trapped Gases ; deccreases mechanical
strenght.
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