What is the crystallographic structure of a cubic diamond?
Crystallographic structure. Diamond's cubic structure is in the Fd 3 m space group, which follows the face-centered cubic Bravais lattice. The lattice describes the repeat pattern; for diamond cubic crystals this lattice is "decorated" with a motif of two tetrahedrally bonded atoms in each primitive cell, separated by 1 4 of the width...
What is the lattice of a cubic crystal?
The lattice describes the repeat pattern; for diamond cubic crystals this lattice is "decorated" with a motif of two tetrahedrally bonded atoms in each primitive cell, separated by 1 4 of the width of the unit cell in each dimension. The diamond lattice can be viewed as a pair of intersecting face-centered cubic lattices, with each separated by 1
What is the shape of the diamond lattice?
The diamond lattice can be viewed as a pair of intersecting face-centered cubic lattices, with each separated by 1 4 of the width of the unit cell in each dimension. Many compound semiconductors such as gallium arsenide, β- silicon carbide, and indium antimonide adopt the analogous zincblende structure,...
How do you find the coordinates of a diamond cubic lattice?
Mathematically, the points of the diamond cubic structure can be given coordinates as a subset of a three-dimensional integer lattice by using a cubic unit cell four units across. x = y = z (mod 2), and. x + y + z = 0 or 1 (mod 4).

What type of lattice does diamond crystal in?
face-centered cubicThe crystal structure of a diamond is a face-centered cubic or FCC lattice.
Is diamond cubic FCC or BCC?
The diamond structure is thus fcc with a basis containing two identical atoms. is at the center, and its four NNs are at the corners of the cube (or vice versa). Each atom forms four bonds with its NNs. Atoms in diamond-type crystals form covalent bonding.
What is meant by diamond lattice?
Crystallographic structure The lattice describes the repeat pattern; for diamond cubic crystals this lattice is "decorated" with a motif of two tetrahedrally bonded atoms in each primitive cell, separated by 1/4 of the width of the unit cell in each dimension.
How many lattice points does diamond have?
The diamond lattice contains also 4 Bravais points per unit cell but contains 8 atoms per unit cell tetrahedrally bonded atoms in each primitive cell.
What is the basis of diamond?
Diamond is a crystal structure with a face centered cubic Bravais lattice and two atoms in the basis. Carbon, silicon germanium, and α-tin form this crystal structure.
How do you draw a diamond cubic structure?
3:0311:41Diamond cubic crystal structure - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipFor you depict that there's 1/8 of an atom at each corner this is the back here now all right soMoreFor you depict that there's 1/8 of an atom at each corner this is the back here now all right so there's 1/8 of an atom at each corner. And then there's atoms in face centered positions.
What is the structure of the diamond?
Structure of Diamond Diamond's carbon atoms are reported to form strong chemical interactions with the four other carbon atoms, forming a flawless tetrahedron structure that extends throughout the crystal. The carbon atoms are sp3 hybridised, and the carbon-carbon atom bond lengths are equivalent.
What is the shape of diamond crystal?
octahedronThe basic crystal shape, or habit, of diamond is the octahedron; a form with eight equal triangular sides, looking like two pyramids connected at the base.
How many atoms are in a diamond cubic unit cell?
In the diamond cubic unit cell, there are eight corner atoms, six face centered atoms and four more atoms inside the structure.
How do you find the lattice parameter of a diamond?
The diamond lattice is face-centered cubic. The simplified packing fraction is 8 x (V atom) / V unit cell. After making substitutions for known volume of spheres and cubes and simplifying, the equation becomes √3 x π/16 with a solution of 0.3401.
Why does diamond belong to cubic crystal?
The diamond cubic structure is tetrahedrally coordinated, which means that each atom has 4 bonds. That's why the other elements that form diamond cubic crystals are also in group 14. Silicon, germanium, and α-tin can form the diamond cubic structure.
What are lattice structures?
A lattice structure is a space-filling unit cell that can be tessellated along any axis with no gaps between cells. These structures are an emerging solution to weight, energy and advanced manufacturing time reduction.
Is diamond A CCP?
Diamond has a zinc blende type structure in which carbon atoms form CCP lattice and carbon atoms occupy tetrahedral voids.
How do you know if its bcc or fcc?
If the unit cell also contains an identical component in the center of the cube, then it is body-centered cubic (bcc) (part (b) in Figure 12.5). If there are components in the center of each face in addition to those at the corners of the cube, then the unit cell is face-centered cubic (fcc) (part (c) in Figure 12.5).
What type of unit cell is diamond?
In the diamond cubic unit cell, there are eight corner atoms, six face centered atoms and four more atoms inside the structure.
Is diamond cubic structure close packed?
The diamond structure is a very common form. This structure is based on the cubic close packed structure with 4 additional atoms (pictured as green balls) in holes within the structure. The form of carbon in diamonds has this structure.
What is a diamond lattice?
The lattice describes the repeat pattern; for diamond cubic crystals this lattice is "decorated" with a motif of two tetrahedrally bonded atoms in each primitive cell, separated by 1. 4 of the width of the unit cell in each dimension. The diamond lattice can be viewed as a pair of intersecting face-centered cubic lattices, with each separated by 1.
How many points are adjacent in a diamond cubic structure?
Alternatively, each point of the diamond cubic structure may be given by four-dimensional integer coordinates whose sum is either zero or one. Two points are adjacent in the diamond structure if and only if their four-dimensional coordinates differ by one in a single coordinate.
What is diamond cubic coordinatization?
Yet another coordinatization of the diamond cubic involves the removal of some of the edges from a three-dimensional grid graph. In this coordinatization, which has a distorted geometry from the standard diamond cubic structure but has the same topological structure, the vertices of the diamond cubic are represented by all possible 3d grid points and the edges of the diamond cubic are represented by a subset of the 3d grid edges.
What is the purpose of diamond cubic geometry?
The diamond cubic geometry has also been considered for the purpose of providing structural rigidity though structures composed of skeletal triangles, such as the octet truss, have been found to be more effective for this purpose.
Which structure has a higher packing factor than 0.34?
Zincblende structures have higher packing factors than 0.34 depending on the relative sizes of their two component atoms. The first-, second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-nearest-neighbor distances in units of the cubic lattice constant are √ 3. /. 4, √ 2.
What are the mechanical properties of diamonds?
Mechanical properties. The compressive strength and hardness of diamond and various other materials , such as boron nitride, is attributed to the diamond cubic structure. Example of a diamond cubic truss system for resisting compression.
What is the structure of diamond?
The diamond cubic crystal structure is a repeating pattern of 8 atoms that certain materials may adopt as they solidify. While the first known example was diamond, other elements in group 14 also adopt this structure, including α-tin, the semiconductors silicon and germanium, and silicon/germanium alloys in any proportion.
Which material can form a diamond cubic structure?
Silicon, germanium, and α-tin can form the diamond cubic structure.
What is the most notable material with a diamond cubic structure?
The most notable material with a diamond cubic structure is, of course, carbon (in diamonds). The diamond cubic structure is tetrahedrally coordinated, which means that each atom has 4 bonds. That’s why the other elements that form diamond cubic crystals are also in group 14.
How many atoms are in a diamond cubic cell?
The diamond cubic crystal structure is based on the face-centered cubic Bravais lattice (you can imagine it as two FCC unit cells, offset by ¼). There are 8 atoms per unit cell, and each atom is tetrahedrally coordinated so that it has 4 nearest neighbors. DC is a famously strong crystal structure, and is the structure of diamond. The diamond cubic cell belongs to space group 227 or , Strukturbericht A4, and Pearson symbol cF8. C (diamond) is the prototype for DC.
How many NNs are there in a diamond?
Each atom in a diamond cubic crystal is tetrahedrally bonded to 4 other atoms, so there are 4 nearest neighbors (NNs). In other words, the coordination number (CN) is 4. The NN distance is , and the next-nearest neighbor (NNN) distance is , where a is the lattice constant (I’ll prove this below).
What is diamond cubic?
Diamond cubic (abbreviated DC in this article) is one of the advanced crystal structures (because it doesn’t correlate 1-1 to a Bravais lattice), so if you’re searching for information about it, I’m assuming you’re a somewhat advanced student in materials science. I’ll give you the facts quickly and with little explanation. If you are new to materials science and don’t know what something means, you can check out my articles on the FCC, BCC, or HCP crystals, which explain terminology more slowly.
How much packing does a diamond cubic crystal have?
We previously established that the area of the whole cube is , and since , the volume of the cube is . As you can see, diamond cubic crystals have 34% packing. That is abysmal, and is even lower than simple cubic, which is so unstable that it only exists in one element at room temperature and pressure. Why does the diamond cubic occur at all ...
How many times is a diamond bonded?
Although each atom is bonded only 4 times (instead of 12 as in close-packed structures), these bonds may each be very strong in the case of covalent-bonded elements like diamond carbon. On the other hand, when metallic bonded gray tin arranges in a diamond cubic structure, it becomes very weak.
How to make a diamond crystal lattice?
A basic method of constructing a diamond crystal lattice supposes it as an FCC structure having a spare atom situated at ¼ a1+ ¼ a2 + ¼ a3 from each FCC atom. The basic component of the structure is a tetrahedron in which the C atom is placed at the center, and the rest of the four nearest neighbors (NNs) are situated at the corners of the cube structure (or vice versa). Atoms present in the diamond-shaped crystals form the covalent bonding. The covalent bonding energy is linked with the shared valence electrons among the atoms and depends on the relative orientation of the atoms.
What is the diamond structure?
The diamond structure is a combination of two identical penetrating FCC lattices. One of the two sublattices is moved along the body diagonal to the cubic unit by one-quarter of the length of the diagonal. The diamond crystal structure is, therefore, FCC with the basis that contains two identical atoms.
How many Bravais lattices are there?
It is a mathematical set of guidelines that are equivalent to one another. The different symmetry operations for a 3D set of points form 14 different Bravais lattices. Each lattice shows a set of points in space which creates a periodic structure. Each point possesses the same environment. The lattice points are characterized by a lattice vector R as follows:
What is the role of Bravais lattice?
Of the 14 Bravais Lattices, a valuable role is played by the face-centered cubic lattice, as this is the structure that is visible in various semiconductors. It is noteworthy to be aware of the arrangement of adjacent atoms, specifically the nearest neighbors (NNs). The number of nearest neighbors of the atoms is referred to as the coordination number.
How many crystal systems are there in the universe?
There are a total 7 crystal systems that explains the structure and symmetry of different atoms. Diamond falls in the category of “Cubic crystal system” also known as “The Bravais lattice”. Diamond is the allotropic form of carbon and the space lattice of the diamond is face centered cubic (FCC) and two atoms in the basis.
What is the most common crystal habit?
It is referred to as the ‘crystal habits.’ The most widely occurring crystal habit is the eight-edged octahedron or the diamond shape . Diamond crystals can be produced in the form of cubes, dodecahedra, etc.
What is crystal symmetry?
An ideal crystal structure has a specific symmetry. Crystal symmetry is characterized by a set of operations that leave the crystal unchanged. Operations that are applied via fixed points in the unit cell are known as the point group operations. These operations comprise rotations, reflections, inversions, and translations. In the crystals, rotations are only permitted for specific angles ϴn = 2π/n, where n = 2, 3, 4, 6, consistent with translations of lattice vectors. Such axis symmetry is the nth fold axis and is represented as C n. It consists of
What is a lattice?
Definition of a Lattice in the Literature. 2. Basis and Crystal. This article is a bit technical in a sense that it provides mainly definitions of terms and concepts. This is however important in order to establish a language and avoid obscurities when talking about crystal structures.
What is a lattice in physics?
A lattice is in general defined as a discrete but infinite regular arrangement of points ( lattice sites) in a vector space [1]
What is a Bravais lattice?
A lattice that can be characterised in this way is referred to as a Bravais lattice. [2] All lattice points are equivalent, i.e. all properties remain invariant under translations by any vector →T mno T → m n o. Also, an observer sitting on one specific lattice point would see the same environment as when sitting on any other. However, if there are lattice points with different environments they cannot form a Bravais lattice! (This is an equivalent definition of a Bravais lattice. [3][4][5] )
What is a crystal?
A crystal is defined as a lattice with a basis added to each lattice site. Usually the basis consists of an atom, a group of atoms or a molecule.
Is the lattice in solid state physics correct?
If you go through literature on solid state physics you may notice that the terms lattice and Bravais lattice are sometimes used interchangeably. The lattice definition according to eq. (1) (1) is indeed more correct from a mathematical point of view and even more common among crystallographers.
What is the Difference Between Zinc Blende and Diamond Structure?
The key difference between zinc blende and diamond structure is that zinc blende has both zinc and sulfur atoms in its structure while diamond structure has only carbon atoms in its structure. Moreover, two atoms in the basis of the face-centered cubic lattice of zinc bende are identical while the two atoms in the basis of the face-centered cubic lattice of the diamond structure are different from each other.
What is the crystal structure of carbon?
Moreover, each carbon atom is attached to four other carbon atoms via covalent chemical bonding. This crystal structure is called a “diamond cubic” structure. Furthermore, among all natural materials, this compound has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity.
What is the difference between zinc and diamond?
The key difference between zinc blende and diamond structure is that zinc blende has both zinc and sulfur atoms in its structure while diamond structure has only carbon atoms in its structure.

Overview
The diamond cubic crystal structure is a repeating pattern of 8 atoms that certain materials may adopt as they solidify. While the first known example was diamond, other elements in group 14 also adopt this structure, including α-tin, the semiconductors silicon and germanium, and silicon–germanium alloys in any proportion. There are also crystals, such as the high-temperature form of cristo…
Crystallographic structure
Diamond's cubic structure is in the Fd3m space group (space group 227), which follows the face-centered cubic Bravais lattice. The lattice describes the repeat pattern; for diamond cubic crystals this lattice is "decorated" with a motif of two tetrahedrally bonded atoms in each primitive cell, separated by 1/4 of the width of the unit cell in each dimension. The diamond lattice can be viewed as a pair of i…
Mathematical structure
Mathematically, the points of the diamond cubic structure can be given coordinates as a subset of a three-dimensional integer lattice by using a cubic unit cell four units across. With these coordinates, the points of the structure have coordinates (x, y, z) satisfying the equations
x = y = z (mod 2), and x + y + z = 0 or 1 (mod 4).
There are eight points (modulo 4) that satisfy these conditions:
Mechanical properties
The compressive strength and hardness of diamond and various other materials, such as boron nitride, (which has the closely related zincblende structure) is attributed to the diamond cubic structure.
Similarly, truss systems that follow the diamond cubic geometry have a high capacity to withstand compression, by minimizing the unbraced length of indiv…
See also
• Allotropes of carbon – Materials made only out of carbon
• Crystallography – Scientific study of crystal structures
• Laves graph – Periodic spatial graph
• Triakis truncated tetrahedral honeycomb
External links
• Media related to Diamond cubic at Wikimedia Commons
• Software to construct self-avoiding random walks on the diamond cubic lattice