MSE 6160

Advanced Crystallography: Symmetry, Order, and Complexity in Materials

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

This course aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of crystal structures and their properties across length scales-from atomic to mesoscale structures-and across classes of materials (e.g., metals, oxides, polymer micelles, nanoparticles). After a quick review of crystallographic symmetry and notation, the course will follow an integrated approach, covering different crystal structure types and materials classes in a case-study-like manner, and the consequences of chemical and structural properties of the building blocks and emerging ordered structures. In the context of each class of structure types, the following aspects will be discussed: crystallographic nomenclature (symmetry groups), crystal structure geometry and topology (bond angles, coordination polyhedra, nets), types of order and disorder motifs (unit cells, modulations, stochasticity), crystal-chemical interpretation and chemical bonding (interactions between particles and resulting structural motifs), phase diagram context (phase stability, surrounding phases), structure-based properties (electric, mechanical, photonic, etc.). Topics include typical crystal structures in metals, oxides, ionic compounds, mesoscale systems, as well as complex periodic structures, aperiodic structures, non-periodic structures.

Prerequisites REF-FA25/Corequisites REF-FA25 basic understanding of crystal structure and symmetry, equivalent to MSE 2060 or MSE 5801. Corequisites: None.

Last 4 terms offered (None)

Outcomes REF-FA25

• Apply crystallographic nomenclature to describe crystal structures.
• Create graphical and numerical representations of crystal structures.
• Identify crystal structure types and relate phases to geometrical equivalents across length scales and classes of materials.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between materials geometry and structure-based materials properties.

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