Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-condensed-matter-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2012/1/c/solution
Past exam of the condensed matter physics course of the University of Oxford 2012 1 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
The high-pressure atomic basis of a crystal has the caesium chloride structure. Its chemically labelled Bravais lattice is simple cubic lattice: exchanging Na and Cl is not a translation symmetry. Its structure factor isBecause ionic bonding gives approximately Na and Cl, their bound-electron counts are and . In the stipulated electron-count approximation, odd-index-sum reflections have , while even-index-sum reflections have . In particular, the first ring is weak but present; it must not be discarded using a body-centering extinction rule.
The next ring is , and Bragg's law givesThe powder diffraction multiplicities are six and twelve. Counting all symmetry-equivalent reflections, while neglecting other angular factors, therefore givesThe corresponding single-directed-reflection ratio would be . Neutral-atom counts would give the wrong contrast because the material is ionic.
For measured integrated photon counts, the geometry must also be specified. More generally the ratio is times the ratio of Lorentz-polarization factors, thermal-motion factors and detection efficiencies. For example, the common unpolarized symmetric-powder convention hasand gives if all other corrections are suppressed. Thus 24.5 is the multiplicity-and-structure-factor estimate, rather than a geometry-independent precision count ratio; actual angle-dependent ionic form factors are also not supplied.
New to topics? Read the docs here!