The overall aim of this MSc module is to explain the description of a crystal structure in terms of atom positions, unit cells, and crystal symmetry; and to relate the crystal symmetry to the symmetry observed in a diffraction experiment, for symmetries up to and including primitive orthorhombic.

The objectives of each lecture are given below:

• Lecture 1
  To introduce the concept of simple crystal structures in terms of atom (or cation/anion) positions, unit cells, and crystal symmetry;
  To demonstrate how the symmetry observed in a diffraction experiment is related to that of the crystal.
• Lecture 2
  To demonstrate that the packing of organic and organometallic molecules in a crystal follows similar principles to those observed for inorganic compounds.
• Lecture 3
  To develop the concept of proper and improper rotation axes;
  To show how they can be combined in a finite number of ways so as to form the 32 crystallographic point groups.
• Lecture 4
  To demonstrate how 2D space may be filled in a regular repeating manner;
  To develop the concepts involved in the plane systems: oblique, rectangular, square, & hexagonal;
  To demonstrate using optical diffraction the relationship between real and reciprocal space for the 17 plane groups.
• Lecture 5
  To describe the 7 crystal systems and the Bravais lattices;
  To introduce the concept of the triclinic lattice and its lattice planes;
  To give general equations relating d-spacing and the unit-cell parameters;
  To show how these equations simplify according to crystal system
  To introduce the triclinic space groups and their tables.
• Lecture 6
  To derive the 8 primitive monoclinic space groups;
  To demonstrate the existence of alternative unit cells with different space group symbols, but identical space group symmetry.
• Lecture 7
  To introduce the concept of systematic absences;
  To show how these may be used to distinguish the space groups of different crystals for the 8 primitive monoclinic space groups;
• Lecture 8
  To derive the 5 centred monoclinic space groups;
  To demonstrate the effect of a lattice centring in a diffraction experiment;
  To demonstrate the effect of combining a lattice centring with a primitive space group.
• Lecture 9
  To introduce the primitive non-centrosymmetric orthorhombic space groups;
  To give the students practice at deriving space-group symmetry from single-crystal diffraction data.
• Lecture 10
  To discuss the centrosymmetric orthorhombic space groups;
  To teach the derivation of the symmetry operators from the space-group symbol;
  To give students more practice at deriving space-group symmetry from single-crystal diffraction data.
• Lecture 11
  To demonstrate how interatomic distances, bond angles, and torsion angles are calculated;
  To give the students practice in carrying out the above calculation in a fast and efficient manner.