P.

306 – olivine information

Chemistry

Crystallography

Physical Properties

Optical Properties
 Crystal Faces
 Common crystal faces relate simply to
surfaces of unit cell
 Often parallel to the faces of the unit cell
 Isometric minerals often are cubes
 Hexagonal minerals often are hexagons
 Other faces are often simple diagonals –
at uniform angles – to the unit cell faces
 These relationships were discovered in
18th century and codified into laws:
 Steno’s law
 Law of Bravais
 Law of Huay
 Steno’s Law
 Angle between equivalent faces on a
crystal of some minerals are always the
same
 Can understand why
 Faces relate to unit cell, crystallographic axes,
and angular relationships between faces and
axes
 Strictly controlled by symmetry of the crystal
system and class of that mineral
 Law of Bravais

 Common crystal faces are parallel to

lattice planes that have high lattice node
densities
All faces parallel unit
cell – high density of Monoclinic crystal
lattice nodes
T has intermediate
density of lattice
c t nodes – fairly
common and
pronounced face on
mineral

Faces A, B, and C
b intersect only one
a axis – principal faces

Face T intersects two

axes a and c, but at
same unit lengths

Face Q intersects A
and C at ratio 2:1

Q has low density, rare face

Fig. 2-21
 Law of Haüy
 Crystal faces intersect axes at simple
integers of unit cell distances on the
crystallographic axes
 Lengths can be absolute or relative:
 Absolute distance - lengths have units
(typically Å) and are not integers
 Unit cell distances - typically small integers,
e.g., 1 to 3, occasionally higher
 1 unit length is the absolute length of
crystallographic axis
 Allows a naming system to describe planes
in the mineral (faces, cleavage, atomic
planes etc.)
Miller Indices
 Miller Indices
 Shorthand notation for where the faces
intercept the crystallographic axes
 Miller Index
 Set of three integers (hkl)
 Inversely proportional to where face or
crystallographic plane (e.g. cleavage)
intercepts axes
 General form is (hkl) where
 h represents the a intercept
 k represents the b intercept
 l represents the c intercept
 h, k, and l are ALWAYS integers
 Fig. 2-22
Consider face t:

Imagine you
extend face t until
it intercepts
crystallographic
axes

Unit cell: each

side is one
“unit” length

How many unit lengths out along the crystallographic axes?

For face t: Fig. 2-22

Axial intercepts in
terms of unit cell
lengths:
a = 12
b = 12 Face t, without the
c=6 rest of the form
 Imagine the face is fit within
the unit cell so that the
maximum intercept is 1 unit
length;
The intercepts for a:b:c would
be 1:1:1/2

Miller indices are the inverse of

the intercepts
Inverting give (112) – note that
the higher the number the closer
to the origin
Fig. 2-22

Face t is the
(112) face
Algorithm for calculation
 What about faces that parallel axes?
 For example, intercepts a:b:c could be 1:1:∞
 With algorithm, miller index would be:
 (hkl) = (1/1 1/1 1/∞) = (110)
 If necessary you need to clear fractions
 E.g. intercepts for a:b:c = 1:2:∞
 Invert: 1/1 1/2 1/∞
 Clear fractions: 2(1 ½ 0) = (210)
 Some intercepts can be negative – they
intercept negative axes
 E.g. a:b:c = 1:-1:½
 Here (hkl) = 1/1:1/-1:1/½ = (112)
 c It is very easy
to visualize
the location of
a simple face
given miller
-b index, or to
b derive a miller
index from
a simple faces

-c

Fig. 2-23
 Hexagonal Miller index
 There need to be 4 intercepts (hkil)
 h = a1
 k = a2
 i = a3
 l=c
 Two a axes have to have opposite sign of
other axis so that
 h+k+i=0
 Possible to report the index two ways:
 (hkil)
 (hkl)
(1010) (1120) (1121)
(100) (110) (111) Klein and Hurlbut
Fig. 2-33
 Assigning Miller indices
 Prominent (and common) faces have small
integers for Miller Indices
 Faces that cut only one axis
 (100), (010), (001) etc
 Faces that cut two axes
 (110), (101), (011) etc
 Faces that cut three axes
 (111)
 Called unit face