Atomic Scale Structure of Materials

This teaching and learning package provides an introduction to crystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous solids, and how the atomic-level structure has radical consequences for some of the properties of the material. It introduces the use of polarised light to examine the optical properties of materials, and shows how a variety of simple models can be used to visualise important features of the microstructure of materials.

• Aims
• Introduction
• Single crystals: Shape and anisotropy
• Single crystals: Mechanical properties
• Single crystals: Optical properties
• Polycrystals
• Defects
• Summary
• Questions
• Going further

Begin

First created: April 2004. Amendments made: January 2008