1. Draw a unit cell for BCC crystal structure.

Show that each BCC unit cell is associated with two atoms.

How many atoms per unit cell?

How many unit cells share the corner atoms?

1. Draw a unit cell for BCC crystal structure. Show that each BCC unit cell is associated with two atoms. 1 3 Eight cells share a corner atom 4 2

5 7 8

Eight corner atoms & an atom at the center = 8x(1/8) + 1 = 2 atoms per unit cell

2. Show that the atomic packing factor for BCC is 0.68.

Face diagonal = Cube diagonal =

Or, R/a =
3 /4

2
3

a a = 4R

A B

a aD

3a 2a
C

Atomic packing factor = volume of atoms volume of the cube = 2 ( 4 ) R 3/a 3 3 3 = 8 3 3 = 8 3 64 = 0.68
A R

B 2R R