by Nevill Gonzalez Szwacki (Texas Southern University, USA) & Teresa Szwacka (University of Los Andes, Venezuela)

This book is intended to be a complete and clear introduction to the field of crystallography. It includes an extensive discussion of the 14 Bravais lattices and the reciprocal to them, basic concepts of point group symmetry, the crystal structure of elements and binary compounds, and much more.

The purpose of this textbook is to illustrate rather than describe ˇ°using many wordsˇ± the structure of materials. Readers who are not at all familiar with the topic but who want to learn how atoms are arranged in crystal structures, will find this book useful. The chapters are accompanied by exercises designed to encourage students to explore the crystal structures he/she is learning about. The entire notation in this book is consistent with the International Tables for Crystallography.

Published by Pan Stanford Publishing and distributed exclusively by World Scientific in Asia Pacific, except for India and Japan.

Contents:

• Crystal Structure
• Three-Dimensional Crystal Lattice
• Crystal Structure of Elements
• Crystal Structure of Important Binary Compounds
• Reciprocal Lattice
• Direct and Reciprocal Lattices

Readership: Undergraduate and graduate students and lecturers in physics, chemistry, biology, electrical & electronic engineering, and materials science & engineering; researchers in physics, chemistry, and nanotechnology.

"An excellent primer on crystallography — a discipline necessary for everyone concerned with the solid state, overarching the fields of materials science, metallurgy, condensed matter physics, micro- and nano-technology. Abundant and clear drawings allow the authors to introduce the concepts of crystal structures and lattices in a very easy way, starting from one dimensional cases and proceeding to all 14 Bravais lattices. The book expounds on the close packed monoatomic structures as well as several important binary compounds. The ideas of the reciprocal lattice are explained in a straightforward manner. The strengths of this book are the excellent images and a large number of tabulated lattice parameters. This textbook is definitely a good starting point for learning crystallography or teaching introductory courses. I would certainly recommend this to my students, while professionals may also enjoy reading it."

"Crystals are viewed as objects of nature which can be described by a set of few vectors. The consequent restriction to elementary topics and elementary methods goes, however, hand in hand with an intuitive, explicit and very detailed presentation of the subject and experienced teachers like Professor Szwacka knows that the most important means in mastering crystallography is visualization. In the text, more than 150 well-designed figures served this purpose. The detailed description of the crystals of elements and a number of binary compounds will certainly be appreciated by undergraduates and graduates in physics as well as in other science disciplines. This fine book provides the appropriate basic knowledge of crystallography both for those who are satisfied with introductory level and those who like to go for more. The authors deserve acknowledgement for their didactic skills."

200pp (approx.)		May 2010
978-981-4241-59-5		US$79