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MATERIALS SCIENCE
Chapter 5

Imperfections in
Crystalline Solids

Giang V. H. Phan

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5.1. Introduction
• Copper, R=0.1278 nm

How many atoms are in a cm3?

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5.1. Introduction

• It is not possible to create a material that perfect order exists throughout

crystalline materials on an atomic scale, all contain large numbers of
various defects or imperfections
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5.2. Significance of defects

• The properties of some materials are profoundly influenced by the
presence of imperfections
• Mechanical properties of pure metals experience significant alterations
when the metals are alloyed (when impurity atoms are added), brass
(70% copper–30% zinc) is much harder and stronger than pure copper
• Electrical property: conductivity of some semiconductors is due to
entirely trace amount of chemical impurities
p-type semiconductor n-type semiconductor

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5.1. Introduction

Force Force

• One type of atom only • Making Alloy

• Regular layers • Distorted layers
• Layers can slide easily • Cannot slide easily
• Malleable (soft) • Much harder

Copper Zinc
Brass

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5.1. Introduction
• Tin-lead (Sn-Pb) solders

• Tin 63% / Lead 37% solder

melts and freezes at 183
°C. This melting point is
much lower than the
melting points of either
pure metal which are 232
°C (tin) and 327 °C (lead)

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5.1. Introduction
• Defects influence the electrical and mechanical properties of solids
• In fact it is the defects that are usually responsible for the existence of
useful properties. While is it perhaps intuitive to think of defects as
bad things, they are in fact necessary, even crucial, to the behavior of
materials
• Adding alloying elements to a metal is one way of introducing a crystal
defect, to improve mechanical strength and corrosion resistance
• Sterling silver is a 92.5% silver–7.5% copper alloy, pure silver is highly
corrosion resistant, but also very soft. Alloying with copper significantly
enhances the mechanical strength without reducing the corrosion
resistance

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5.1. Introduction
• Color of many gemstones arise from impurities
Gemstone Color Host crystal Impurity
Ruby Red Aluminum oxide Chromium
Emerald Green Beryllium aluminosilicate Chromium
Garnet Red Calcium aluminosilicate Iron
Topaz Yellow Aluminum fluorosilicate Iron
Tourmaline Pink-red Calcium lithium Manganese
boroaluminosilicate
Turquoise Blue-green Copper phosphoaluminate Copper

• A ruby may contain < 1% Cr

and look pink or red, but the
same material without Cr will
be completely colorless
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5.1. Introduction
Aluminum oxide gemstone

• Ruby is alumina with about 1% of Al3+ replaced by Cr3+, yields red color
• Blue Sapphire is alumina with impurities of Fe and Ti, various shade of blue
• Manganese impurities yield yellow
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5.1. Introduction
• Diamond that contains a high concentration of nitrogen will have a
strong yellow color, a small number of nitrogen atoms in its crystal
lattice will have a faint yellowish tint
• Brown diamonds: dislocations in the crystal
• Pink and red diamonds: result from plastic deformation in the crystal
lattice structure during the formation of the diamond
• Blue diamonds is formed by
the presence of boron (1ppm
or less) within the diamond.
The more boron, the more is
the blue color

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5.1. Introduction
• "Crystals are like people: it is the defects in them which tend to make
them interesting!" Sir Colin J. Humphreys, British Physicist, 1979
• Whether having in mind the color and associated price of diamonds,
the efficiency of semiconductor devices, or the mechanical stability of
metals, defects and other types of spatial disorder fundamentally
impact the properties of otherwise perfectly crystalline materials
Colin John Humphreys (born
24 May 1941) is a British
physicist. Professor of
Materials Science at Queen
Mary University of London

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5.1. Introduction
• Classification of crystalline imperfections is frequently made according to
the geometry or dimensionality of the defect, including point defects
(zero-dimension), linear/line defects (one-dimension), interfacial/planar
defects or grain boundaries (two-dimension) and bulk/volume defects
(three-dimension)

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5.2. Point defects

• Point defects (khuyết tật, sai lệch điểm, sai lệch có kích thước nguyên
tử, 0D): an atom is missing or in an irregular place in the lattice structure
• Do sự khuyết hoặc sai chỗ của một nguyên tử
• Point defects include vacancies, self interstitial atoms, interstitial
impurity atoms, substitutional atoms
• Vacancy: an atom is missing (lỗ trống, nút trống)
• A self-interstitial : extra atom in an interstitial (ordinary circumstances is
not occupied) (nguyên tử tự xen kẽ)

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5.2. Point defects

• Substitutional impurity defect (nguyên tử tạp chất thay thế): occurs
when the original atom in the lattice site of a crystalline solid is
replaced by a different type of atom

• Interstitial impurity atoms (nguyên tử tạp chất xen kẽ): interstitial

impurities are smaller atoms than the host atom

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5.2. Point defects

• Schottky defect and Frenkel defect are point defects and occur only in
ionic materials

Schottky Frenkel
Defect Defect
(cặp nút trống) (ion xen kẽ)

• Cation and anion leave their lattice • An ion (smaller ion, usually cation)
sites and create a pair of vacancy is moves from its normal position
defects to an interstitial one
• Usually occurs in ionic crystals • Usually occurs in ionic crystals
where difference in size between where difference in size between
cation and anion is small cation and anion is large
• Defect reduces density of crystal • Density of crystal does not change
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5.3. Line defects

• Linear/line imperfection (khuyết tật, sai lệch đường): array of atoms is
misaligned (sai lệch xảy ra ở một dãy nguyên tử)
• Edge dislocations (lệch biên): occurs when there are extra atoms
inserted into a plane in the crystal (do sự không liên tục của các mặt
phẳng nguyên tử trong tinh thể)

Edge
dislocation
line

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5.3. Line defects

• Screw dislocation (lệch xoắn):
a dislocation in the lattice structure of
a crystal in which the atoms are
arranged in a helical pattern, often
formed by a shear stress (Dãy nguyên
tử sai lệch theo hình xoắn ốc)

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5.4. Interfacial defects

• Interfacial defects (surface/planar defects, sai lệch mặt: khuyết tật có
kích thước 2D, sai lệch xảy ra trên một bề mặt), including external
surfaces (mặt ngoài tinh thể), grain boundaries, phase boundaries

• Vùng tiếp giáp giữa các đơn tinh thể (hạt) trong vật liệu đa tinh thể gọi là
vùng biên giới hạt
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5.5. Bulk/volume defects

• Volume defect (sai lệch thể tích, 3D): large number of atoms missing
from the lattice (sai lệch ở một cụm nguyên tử)
• Pores (vùng khuyết)
Affect optical, thermal and mechanical properties
• Cracks
Affect mechanical properties
• Foreign inclusions (e.g. foreign particles)
Affect electrical, mechanical, optical properties
• Other phases presence

A void in a piece of metal

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5.5. Mechanical property of materials

• Iron Ring Ceremony
• The Iron Ring (symbol of an engineer) is a ring worn by
many Canadian-trained engineers, as a symbol and reminder of the
obligations and ethics associated with their profession
• The Quebec Bridge collapsed during construction on August 29, 1907,
killing eighty-six workers. Only eleven of the workers on the span were
recovered alive, and some bodies were never found

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5.5. Mechanical property of materials

• Materials are subjected to forces or loads in service
• It is necessary to know the mechanical characteristics of the materials
to design and select right materials that fracture will not occur
• The mechanical behavior of a material reflects its response or
deformation in relation to an applied load or force. Key mechanical
design properties are stiffness, strength, hardness, ductility, and
toughness

Ứng suất kéo Ứng suất cắt, trượt

Ứng suất nén

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5.5. Mechanical property of materials

• Stress (ứng suất): force acting per unit area (lực tác dụng trên một đơn
vị diện tích)
• A normal stress (ứng suất pháp tuyến) : apply force perpendicular to
the area of interest. A shear stress (ứng suất trượt) : applied force acts
in a direction parallel to the area of interest
• Strain (biến dạng) is defined as the change in dimension per unit length
• Elastic strain fully recoverable strain from an applied stress. A material
subjected to an elastic strain does not show any permanent deformation
(i.e., it returns to its original shape after the force or stress is removed)
• Tác dụng một lực cơ học lên một mẫu vật liệu, nếu sau khi bỏ tác dụng
lực mà mẫu trở về hình dạng, kích thước ban đầu thì biến dạng gọi là
biến dạng đàn hồi, nếu mẫu không trở về hình dạng và kích thước ban
đầu thì gọi là biến dạng dẻo (plastic strain). Biến dạng dẻo là kết quả của
sự dịch chuyển các nguyên tử từ vị trí cân bằng này đến vị trí cân bằng
khác dưới tác dụng của một lực với cường độ đủ lớn

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5.5. Mechanical property of materials

F

A
 : stress (Pa)
F : applied force (N)
A : cross - sectional area (m2 )

• F=200 N
• Steel sample in cylinder d=5 cm
• Find the applied stress in MPa

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5.5. Mechanical property of materials

normal stress
shear stress

Tensile stress

L

ε : strain L0
ΔL : deformation
L 0 : original length
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5.5. Mechanical property of materials

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5.5. Mechanical property of materials

• Hardness is a measure of the resistance to localized deformation
(surface) induced by either mechanical indentation or abrasion, ability
of materials to resistance to scratching, penetration marking, wearing
• Stiffness (elastic modulus) express to which an object resists
deformation in response to an applied force
• Strength is the stress required to break the sample, several types of the
strength: tensile, compressional, flexural (bending), torsional (twisting),
impact

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5.5. Mechanical property of materials

• Elastic deformation
• Hooke’s law— relationship between stress and strain for elastic
deformation (tension and compression)

E (GPa or psi) is the modulus of elasticity, or Young’s modulus

Slope = modulus of
elasticity

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5.5. Mechanical property of materials

• The tensile strength (ultimate strength, MPa or psi) of a material is the
maximum tensile stress that it can withstand before its failure, is the
stress at the maximum on the stress–strain curve

X Fracture

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5.5. Mechanical property of materials

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5.5. Mechanical property of materials

Shear load

Shear strain

• The shear modulus (modulus of rigidity) is defined as the ratio

of shear stress to shear strain, measure of resistance to shear
deformation, denoted by G
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5.5. Mechanical property of materials

• Flexural strength for three point bend test

F is the fracture load, L is the distance between the two outer points, w is
the width of the specimen, and h is the thickness of the specimen

• The modulus of elasticity in bending, or

the flexural modulus (Ebend)

δ is the deflection of the beam when a force F is applied

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5.5. Mechanical property of materials

• Toughness is the amount of energy per unit volume that a material can
absorb before rupturing (energy required to fracture material)
• Toughness is the ability of a material to withstand impact
• The toughness of a material is given by the area under a stress–strain
curve

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