PHY 4113

Structure of Matter, Electricity, Magnetism and Modern Physics

Lecture 8

Imperfections/defects in solids

Dr. Fahmida Sharmin

Assistant Professor, NSc
6
Imperfections or defects: Any deviation from the perfect atomic
arrangement in a crystal is said to contain imperfections or defects. In
fact, using the term “defect” is sort of a misnomer since these features
are commonly intentionally used to manipulate the mechanical properties
of a material. Crystal imperfections have strong influence upon many
properties of crystals, such as strength, electrical conductivity and
hysteresis loss of ferromagnets. Thus some important properties of
crystals are controlled by as much as by imperfections and by the nature
of the host crystals.

The conductivity of some semiconductors is due entirely to trace

amount of chemical impurities.
Color, luminescence of many crystals arise from impurities and
imperfections
Mechanical and plastic properties are usually controlled by
imperfections
Imperfections are
normally classified
according to their
dimension as follows

1. Point imperfections
(Zero dimensional
defects)
2. Line imperfections
(one dimensional
defects)
3. Plane or surface
imperfections (Two
dimensional
defects)
4. V o l u m e
imperfections
(three dimensional
defects)
Definition of Point Defect:

A point defect occurs when one or more atoms of a crystalline solid leave their
original lattice site and/or foreign atoms occupy the interstitial position of the
crystal. Point defect is considered as the zero dimensional (0-D) defect, as by
mathematical definition, a point is unit-less dimensionless quantity! By the way,
point defect is the smallest possible defect in any material.

Types of Point Defect in Crystalline Solid:

Point defect can be primarily classified into three categories, viz. Vacancy,
Interstitial, and Substitutional. Sometime Self-Interstitial defect is also considered
another one category. However, in case of ionic crystals (ceramics), Schottky
defect and Frenkel defect can occur, which are nothing but the combination of two
different types of the above mentioned four basic types of point defects. The
details of these point defects are discussed in the following section.
Vacancy – A Point Defect
A vacancy is produced when an atom is missing from its original lattice site.
So vacancy creates an empty lattice site as depicted below. Due to the
reduction in number of atoms in the crystalline solid, vacancy defect
results in reduction of the density. The number of vacancies present within
a crystalline solid depends exponentially with temperature, thus with
increase in temperature of solid, number of vacancies also increases.
Interstitial – A Point Defect

An interstitial defect occurs when an atom takes the interstitial position of the
lattice structure. This interstitial atom may be of the same crystal or of a
foreign material. Accordingly, interstitial defect can be of two types:
•Self-Interstitial Defect—occurs when atom of the same crystalline solid
occupies the interstitial position leaving its original lattice site.
•Interstitial Defect—occurs when a foreign atom occupies the interstitial
position.

Although extra atom occupies the empty interstitial space, the size of the
atom is usually larger than that of the empty space. Thus the surrounding
atoms are compressed and distorted. Presence of substantial number of
interstitial atoms can change the mechanical and thermal properties of
the solid. However, this is sometime beneficial, and thus interstitial defects
can be applied in a controlled way to enhance various properties of the solid.
For example, in steel production, carbon is added with iron. Carbon atoms,
with a radius of 0.071 nm, fit nicely in the open spaces between the larger
(0.124 nm) iron atoms.
Interstitial Atom is a Point Defect. Here a foreign atom occupies the interstitial position of
a perfect crystal.

Self-Interstitial Atom is also a Point Defect. Here an extra atom of same crystal occupies
the interstitial position of the crystal.
Substitutional – A Point Defect

Substitutional Defect occurs when the original atom in the lattice site of a
crystalline solid is replaced by a different type of atom. Unlike interstitial
defect, foreign atom should occupy the lattice site only and not the interstitial
position, as depicted below. The foreign atom may be of same size or
different (either larger or smaller). Depending on the size of the substituted
foreign atom, the neighboring atoms may remain either in tension or in
compression. Substitutional defects can be found in brass, where zinc atoms
replace copper atoms.
Schottky Defect – Point Defect in Ionic Crystal

It is one type of Point Defect that occurs in ionic crystals. Schottky defect occurs when
oppositely charged atoms (cation and anion) leave their corresponding lattice sites and
create a pair of Vacancy Defects. So, one Schottky defect leads to the formation of two
vacancies. Since both cation and anion leave the lattice sites at the same time, so
overall electrical neutrality of the crystal is maintained; however, density reduces
because of the vacancies
Frenkel Defect – Point Defect in Ionic Crystal (Ceramic)

Frenkel Defect is one type of Point Defect; in fact, it is a combination of both

Vacancy and Interstitial type of point defects. Usually, this type of defect is
observed in ionic solids, where size of anion is substantially larger than the size
of cation. Basically, a Frenkel Defect is occurs when an atom (better to say ion,
especially cation) leaves its original lattice site and occupies an interstitial
position on the same crystal.
Difference between Schottky and Frenkel defects
 Lecture 9
Line defects
Linear defects are commonly called dislocations. Any deviation from perfectly periodic
arrangement of atoms along a line is called the line imperfection. Dislocations are
especially important in materials science, because they help determine the
mechanical strength of materials. There are two basic types of dislocations, the edge
dislocation and the screw dislocation

Edge dislocations

If one of the vertical planes does not extended to the full length, but ends in between,
within the crystal, then such a defect is known as edge dislocation.
In perfect crystal, atoms are arranged in both vertical and horizontal planes as shown
in Fig .From the figure it is clear that the atoms are in perfect equilibrium in their
positions and all bond lengths are in equilibrium state.
 Edge dislocations

If one of the vertical planes does not extend to the full length, but
ends in between within the crystal as shown in Fig. it is called edge
dislocation.
Because of dislocation, (i) just above the discontinuity, the atoms are
squeezed and are in state of compression and (ii) just below the
discontinuity; the atoms are pulled apart and are in state of tension.
The distorted configuration spreads all along the edge into the crystal.
Thus, the maximum distortion is centered around the edge of the incomplete
plane. This distortion represents a line imperfection and is called an edge
dislocation. Edge dislocations are symbolically represented by ┴ or ┬.

Positive edge dislocation Negative edge dislocation

When the incomplete plane starts from the top of the crystal, then it is called
positive edge dislocation and is represented by “┴” (see Fig. a)
When the incomplete plane starts from the bottom of the crystal, then it is called
negative edge dislocation and is represented by “┬” (see Fig. b).
 Screw dislocations
The screw dislocations are also known as Burger dislocations. These dislocations
arise due to the displacement of atoms in one part of a crystal relative to the other
part
Slip plane
Stress Dislocation line

Stress

To visualize a screw dislocation, imagine a block of metal with a shear stress applied
so that the metal begins to rip.
Along the cut boundary, the atoms get displaced and two regions will be in
mismatched condition i.e., dislocation of atoms take place around the edge line AB
known as dislocation line.