Physics 104A, Homework 1 Solutions

TA: Antonio Russo

October 29, 2014

Kittel 1.1

We are directed to find the angle between a1 and a2 (or any other pair). Fortunately, there is a nice
relationship between the dot product and the cosine of an angle:
a b = ab cos ab
where ab is the angle between a and b. It is then easy to see that
cos =

a1 a2

=
aa bb

1
4

[1 + 1 1]
3
2

1
3

so
0.392

Kittel 1.2

axis, and the

Although it may have been stated in a confusing way, the (100) plane is normal to the x
For (100), we see that 2a1 and 2a3 intercept the plane. a2 is parallel to it.
(001) plane is normal to the z.
Following the algorithm, we get (101). The same reasoning gives (011) for the other plane.

Kittel 1.3

Our approach is to assume that the xy plane is as shown in figure 19. There is an A layer, and a B layer,
a distance c/2 in the z direction above it. The best value of c will cause a sphere centered on the lattice Bs
sites to be a distance a from the nearest neighbors in the A layer. To proceed, we must identify where
lattice Bs sites are (in the xy plane). We do this by noticing that they are at the centroid of the triangles
formed by the A lattice. The altitude h of those triangles satisfies

3
2
2
2
a
a = (a/2) + h or h =
2
In the xy plane, then, the separation of the A and B lattice sites is

a
2 3
a=
3 2
3
Since the total distance must be a,

a2 = (a/ 3)2 + (c/2)2 = a2 /3 + c2 /4

or

 a 2
c

8
3

Physics 104A, Homework 1 Solutions

4
(a)

TA: Antonio Russo

Kittel 2.1
Orthogonality

We use the notation

G=

hi bi

so

(hkl) = (h1 h2 h3 )

Notice that
ri = N h1
i ai
is a translation vector that moves to another plane in the lattice (I have begrudgingly included the factor
N , which is precisely the common factor you divide by to reduce to common terms). It follows that the
difference of any two ri moves along the plane, or equivalently is normal to the plane. There are only two
linearly independent differences of these three vectors; furthermore, if any hi = 0, then it is clear that ai is
parallel to the plane.
Because ai bi is zero unless i = j,




h2
h1
1
1
1
b1 a1 N b2 a2 = 0
G N h1
1 a1 N h2 a2 = (h1 b1 + h2 b2 + h3 b3 ) N h1 a1 N h2 a2 = N
h1
h2
(and similarly for any other difference). It is easy to see what happens if hi = 0 (in that case, G is immediately
orthogonal to ai , and there is only one other vector to consider).

(b)

Distance

This part is a bit subtle. Assume (without loss of generality) that h1 6= 0, and consider the vector
r=

1
1
1
+ h1
1 a1 h2 a2 + h1 a1 h3 a3
hi

(we have assumed that hi 6= 0; the proof where one or two hi vanish is similar, but I will not present it here).
The and are coefficients to terms that are parallel to the lattice plane; they do not move you off of the
plane. The term, on the other hand, moves you between lattice planes. If r is a lattice vector, i.e., if

1
1
1
a1 + h1
1 a1 h2 a2 + h1 a1 h3 a3 = m1 a1 + m2 a2 + m3 a3
h1
for integers m1 , m2 .m3 , then has moved you to a lattice plane containing the lattice site m1 a1 + m2 a2 +
m3 a3 . Our desire is to find the smallest for which this can happen (that will take us to the plane that is
closest to the lattice plane that passes through the origin).
Because the primitive lattice vectors are linearly independent,
++
= m1 ,
h1

h1
2 = m2 ,

and

h1
3 = m3

and it follows that

m2 h2 m3 h3 = m1 h1

or = m1 h1 + m2 h2 + m3 h3

since the hi and mi are all integers, is obviously an integer. However, because the greatest common
denominator of hi is 1 (because we reduced terms), we can choose mi such that = 1 (this is some basic
number theory). Its clear, then, that = 1 is the first plane. For this reason, h1
i ai moves you by exactly
one lattice plane.
Having established this fact, we can simply take the dot product of this vector with the normal to the
plane to get the distance between planes:
h1 ai = G ai = 1 hi ai bi = 2
d=G
i
hi |G|
|G|
hi
|G|

Physics 104A, Homework 1 Solutions

(c)

TA: Antonio Russo

Cubic Lattice

A simple cubic lattice has reciprocal vectors as in (27b), so that

G=
and
|G|2 =
so that
d2 =

5
(a)


(2)2  2
h + k 2 + l2
2
a

a2
(2)2
=
|G|2
h2 + k 2 + l2

Kittel 2.2: Hexagonal Space Lattice

Volume

 31/2 a/2

V = 
a/2

0

(b)

i
2 h
+ k y + ll
hx
a

31/2 a/2
a/2
0

0
0
c



 31/2 2
31/2 2
=
a
c

2
=
a c

4
2


Reciprocal primitive vectors



i
4 h 1/2
1
1
4

[a

a
]
=
(3
ac/2)
y
+
(ac/2)
x
=
2
y
+

x
2
3
a
31/2 a2 c
31/2 a2 c
31/2 a


i
4
1
1
4 h
1/2
= 2 y 1/2 x

b2 = 1/2 2 [a3 a1 ] = 1/2 2 (3 ac/2)y + (ac/2)x

a
3 a c
3 a c
3 a
i 2
4
4 h
z
b1 = 1/2 2 [a1 a2 ] = 1/2 2 (31/2 a2 /4)z + (31/2 a2 /4)z =
c
3 a c
3 a c
b1 =

(c)

Shape

Hexagonal prism.

Brillouin Zone Volume

Notice first that

b2 b3 =

(2)2
(2)2
[(a3 a1 ) (a1 a2 )] =
a1
2
Vc
Vc

using the identity in the hint. Then,


2
(2)2
(2)3
Vb = b1 (b2 b3 ) =
a2 a3
a1 =
Vc
Vc
Vc