Planes, Miller Indexes, and Convolutions

Ultimately we want to know how a crystal diffracts X rays and produces the diffraction pattern that it does, and conversely, how the diffraction pattern can be used to reconstruct the crystal. It will be found useful in this regard to consider the crystal as the combination, or product of two distinct components, or functions. The first of these is the contents of a unit cell, characterized mathematically by the coordinates of the atoms in an asymmetric unit along with their space group symmetry equivalent positions. The second is a point lattice that describes the periodic distribution of the unit cell contents, and is characterized by a, b, and c. A crystal may then be concisely defined as the first component, or function, repeated in identically the same way at every nonzero point of the second. This physical process of repetitive superposition is termed a convolution. It can be formulated mathematically as the product of the two components, or functions as 

Fourfold axes perpendicular to all faces, Threefold axea along all body diagonals a=b=c a= p=7=90  

FIGURE 3.15 The types of unit cells that form the basis for the allowable lattices of all crystals (known as the Bravais lattices). There are 15 unique lattices (see International Tables, Volume I, for further descriptions). All primitive (/ ) cells may be considered to contain a single lattice point (one-eighth of a point contributed by each of those at the corners of the cell), face-centered (C) and body-centered (/) cells contain two full points, and face-centered (F) cells contain four complete lattice points. 

Convolution of asymmetric unit with a one-dimensional point lattice 

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