In this section we discuss basic operations with crystal directions. Therefore, lets start by importing the trigonal Quartz crystal symmetry
and consider two hexagonal prism normal
Zone Axes
Both prism planes intersects in a common zone axis which is orthogonal to both plane normals can is computed by
Note that MTEX automatically switches from reciprocal to direct coordinates for displaying the zone axis.
The other way round two, not parallel, zone axes
span a lattice plane with normal vector
Symmetrically Equivalent Crystal Directions
Since crystal lattices are symmetric lattice directions can be grouped into classes of symmetrically equivalent directions. Those groups can be derived by permuting the Miller indices (uvw). The class of all directions symmetrically equivalent to (uvw) is commonly denoted by uvw, while the class of all lattice planes symmetrically equivalent to the plane (hkl) is denoted by {hkl}. Given a lattice direction or a lattice plane all symmetrically equivalent directions and planes are computed by the command symmetrise
As always the keyword 'antipodal'
adds antipodal symmetry to this computation
Using the options 'symmetrised'
and 'labeled'
all symmetrically equivalent crystal directions are plotted together with their Miller indices. Lets apply this to a list of lattice planes
The command eq
or ==
can be used to check whether two crystal directions are symmetrically equivalent. Compare
and
Angles
The angle between two crystal directions m1
and m2
is defined as the smallest angle between m1
and all symmetrically equivalent directions to m2
. This angle is in radiant and it is calculated by the function angle(m1,m2)
As always the keyword 'antipodal'
adds antipodal symmetry to this computation
In order to ignore the crystal symmetry, i.e., to compute the actual angle between two directions use the option 'noSymmetry'
This option is available for many other functions involving crystal directions and crystal orientations.
Calculations
Essentially all the operations defined for general directions, i.e. for variables of type vector3d
are also available for Miller indices. In addition Miller indices interact with crystal orientations. Consider the crystal orientation
Then one can apply it to a crystal direction to find its coordinates with respect to the specimen coordinate system
By applying a crystal symmetry one obtains the coordinates with respect to the specimen coordinate system of all crystallographically equivalent specimen directions.
Conversions
Converting a crystal direction which is represented by its coordinates with respect to the crystal coordinate system \(a\), \(b\), \(c\) into a representation with respect to the associated Euclidean coordinate system is done by the command vector3d
.
Conversion into spherical coordinates requires the function polar