Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/paper-2/section-c/c10/d/solution

The direct body-centered cubic lattice has a face-centred cubic reciprocal lattice, whereas the direct face-centered cubic lattice has a body-centred cubic reciprocal lattice. Thus the reciprocal lattice change in a structural phase transition reverses the two cubic types: the reciprocal lattice changes from FCC to BCC when the real material changes from BCC to FCC. If the direct conventional side is , the reciprocal conventional side is in either case, with the appropriate phase-specific .
Within one phase, ordinary thermal expansion increases direct spacings and decreases reciprocal spacings. At the structural phase transition, reciprocal points acquire the new symmetry and allowed positions. A first-order transformation may show both phases simultaneously and may create differently oriented domains; it need not continuously preserve one perfect reciprocal array throughout.
Using the fixed-radius estimates from part (b), , so the reciprocal primitive cell volume would increase by about . That comparison belongs to the ideal contact model. The question supplies neither the actual thermal expansion nor a crystallographic orientation relationship, so it does not determine a unique trajectory of individual reciprocal points during the transition.

New to topics? Read the docs here!