Dissemination of IT for the Promotion of Materials Science (DoITPoMS)

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Summary

This teaching and learning package has introduced Brillouin zones and their construction in two and three dimensions.

The relationship between the construction of Brillouin zones and diffraction from Bragg Planes has been shown by a consideration of the Bragg equation.

The examples shown in the package itself demonstrate the principles of the construction in two dimensions. In three dimensions the principles of the construction are the same, but the Brillouin Zones are hard to visualise. Rotating the shapes of Brillouin Zones about a cube axis as in the examples we have given in this package helps to improve the visualisation in comparison with simple line diagrams found in textbooks.