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Sample B should show two FCC peak families, one from a copper-rich phase and one from a silver-rich phase. Their lattice parameters are set by the compositions of the coexisting phases, not by one lattice parameter at the overall alloy composition.

For corresponding Miller indices the silver-rich phase has a larger lattice parameter and hence a larger interplanar spacing, so its reflection occurs at smaller $2\theta$. Some reflections may overlap or be weak. Relative intensities depend on phase fractions, atomic scattering factors, absorption and texture; a raw peak-height ratio is not directly a mass fraction.

At room temperature the mutual solubilities in the supplied Cu–Ag diagram are small, so the two families would be near the elemental copper and silver positions. Slow cooling is important: a metastable supersaturated single phase would be a different interpretation. Quantitative phase or composition analysis would require calibrated diffraction and an appropriate refinement, not merely counting the visible peaks.

Consider a chosen primitive cubic lattice $a{\mathbb{Z}}^3$ with $a=0.400\mathrm{nm}$ and one identical point scatterer per primitive unit cell. Retain the incident wavelength $\lambda =0.154\mathrm{nm}$. This is an ideal point model. Its reciprocal lattice vectors are $q=(2\pi /a)(h,k,l)$ for integer triples other than $(0,0,0)$. Write $S=h^2+k^2+l^2$. The associated interplanar spacing and first-order Bragg angle satisfyThe reflection labels $(hkl)$ use the Miller index convention, keeping unreduced triples to encode diffraction order. With that convention, set $n=1$ in Bragg's law for each label. The $(200)$ reflection is equivalently the second diffraction order of $(100)$: $d_{200}=a/2$ does not imply extra scatterers halfway between the occupied $(100)$ planes. Counting both descriptions as distinct reflections would count the same direction twice.

For $(100)$, $(110)$, $(111)$ and $(200)$, respectively, $S=1,2,3,4$ and the calculated interplanar spacings are $0.400000$, $0.282843$, $0.230940$ and $0.200000\mathrm{nm}$. Their calculated deflections $2\theta$ are $22.197435^{\circ }$, $31.594744^{\circ }$, $38.952948^{\circ }$ and $45.287481^{\circ }$. Equal steps in $S$ give equal steps in ${\sin }^2\theta$, not equal steps in $2\theta$. This regularity makes an angular pattern a test of a proposed crystal structure.

A real crystal structure has a Bravais lattice together with an atomic basis of a crystal. The crystal lattice structure factor selects the periodic directions; the crystal basis structure factor combines the scattering amplitudes of atoms within a unit cell and can cancel a reflection. Consequently Bragg's law alone predicts neither allowed reflections nor their wave intensities. ^[ref] Systematic absences further restrict observed families; for example, face-centered cubic lattice centering permits only indices all even or all odd in conventional cubic indexing. The four strips above apply to the stated primitive cubic lattice, not to sodium chloride or a face-centered cubic lattice. ^[ref]

The reciprocal crystallographic metric matrix is the Gram matrix of the reciprocal lattice basis. With direct-basis matrix $A=(\mathbf{a}\mathbf{b}\mathbf{c})$ and the convention ${\mathbf{a}}_i^{\ast }\cdot {\mathbf{a}}_j={\delta }_{ij}$, the reciprocal-basis matrix is $A^{\ast }=A^{-T}$. Consequently,where $G$ is the direct crystallographic metric matrix. If direct lengths are in angstroms, the reciprocal metric entries have units of inverse squared angstroms.^[ref]

For an original calculation, takeFor a Miller index column $\mathbf{h}$, the corresponding reciprocal vector is ${\mathbf{g}}_{\mathbf{h}}=A^{\ast }\mathbf{h}$. Its squared magnitude determines the interplanar spacing:For $(110)$ this gives $d^{-2}=7/27{\mathring{\mathrm{A}}}^{-2}$, so $d\simeq 1.964\mathring{\mathrm{A}}$.

The same matrix also gives angles between plane normals. In this example,The reciprocal angle is120degrees while the corresponding direct-cell angle is60degrees. In an oblique cell, reciprocal directions cannot be recovered by simply inverting the three edge lengths separately.

A convention using reciprocal vectors with dot products $2\pi {\delta }_{ij}$ multiplies this reciprocal metric by $(2\pi {)}^2$. In that convention the spacing formula includes the matching factor $(2\pi {)}^2$ in its numerator. Stating the convention prevents an otherwise systematic length error.

The zinc blende structure consists of a face-centered cubic lattice with two species displaced by a quarter of the body diagonal. Its conventional-cell structure factor vanishes for mixed-parity Miller indices. For equal parity, $S_{\mathrm{FCC}}=4$: odd indices give $|F{|}^2=16(f_A^2+f_B^2)$ for real atomic scattering factors, even index sums divisible by four give $16(f_A+f_B{)}^2$, and sums congruent to two modulo four give $16(f_A-f_B{)}^2$. The last reflections diagnose sublattice scattering contrast. They vanish in the equal-factor diamond limit but need not vanish for a binary compound.