Crystal

Crystal structure

Which crystallization.

While the cooling process usually results in the generation of a crystalline material, under certain conditions, the solids, although this is a controversial topic; see the entry on glass for more details.

Crystalline structures occur in all classes of materials, with all types of graphite.

Most crystalline materials have a variety of crystallographic defects. The types and structures of these defects can have a profound effect on the properties of the materials and diffrent minerals too that are diffrent from that crystal.

Other meanings and characteristics

Since the initial discovery, made in 1982 by quasicrystal have led the International Union of Crystallography to redefine the term crystal to mean 'any solid having an essentially discrete diffraction diagram', thereby shifting the essential attribute of crystallinity from position space to Fourier space. Within the family of crystals one distinguishes between traditional crystals, which are periodic on the atomic scale, and aperiodic crystals which are not. This broader definition adopted in 1996 reflects the current understanding that microscopic periodicity is a sufficient but not a necessary condition for crystallinity.

While the term "crystal" has a precise meaning within salt are common examples of crystals.

Some crystalline materials may exhibit special electrical properties such as the ferroelectric effect or the photonic crystals.

Crystallography is the scientific study of crystals and crystal formation.

Crystalline rocks

  sandstone and have never been in a molten condition nor entirely in solution. The high temperature and pressure conditions of metamorphism have acted on them erasing their original structures, and inducing recrystallization in the solid state.^[1]

See also

References

1. ^ This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition article "Petrology", a publication now in the public domain.