Miller Index - Case of Cubic Structures

Case of Cubic Structures

For the special case of simple cubic crystals, the lattice vectors are orthogonal and of equal length (usually denoted a); similar to the reciprocal lattice. Thus, in this common case, the Miller indices (hkℓ) and both simply denote normals/directions in Cartesian coordinates.

For cubic crystals with lattice constant a, the spacing d between adjacent (hkℓ) lattice planes is (from above):

.

Because of the symmetry of cubic crystals, it is possible to change the place and sign of the integers and have equivalent directions and planes:

• Coordinates in angle brackets such as ⟨100⟩ denote a family of directions which are equivalent due to symmetry operations, such as, or the negative of any of those directions.
• Coordinates in curly brackets or braces such as {100} denote a family of plane normals which are equivalent due to symmetry operations, much the way angle brackets denote a family of directions.

For face-centered cubic and body-centered cubic lattices, the primitive lattice vectors are not orthogonal. However, in these cases the Miller indices are conventionally defined relative to the lattice vectors of the cubic supercell and hence are again simply the Cartesian directions.