: means any deviation of the ideally perfect crystal from the periodic arrangement of its constituents.
Point Defects
Stoichiometric defects
Frenkel defects
If an ion is missing from its correct lattice sites (causing a vacancy or a hole) and occupies an interstitial site, electrical neutrality as well as stoichiometry of the compounds are maintained.
Interstitial defects
When some constituent particles (atoms or molecules) occupy an interstitial site
Vacancy defects
When some of the lattice sites are vacant
Schottky defects
If in an ionic crystal of the type A+ B-, equal number of cations and anions are missing from their lattice.
Non-Stoichiometric defects
Metal Deficiency Defect
Cation Vacancies
In some cases, the positive ions may be missing from their lattice sites. The extra negative charge may be balanced by some nearby metal ion acquiring two positive charges instead of one.
Extra anions occupying interstitial sites
In the case, the extra anions may be occupying interstitial positions. The extra negative charge is balanced by the extra charges on the adjacent metal ions.
Metal Excess Defect
In this case, negative ions may be missing from their lattice sites leaving holes in which the electrons remain entrapped to maintain the electrical neutrality.
Impurity defects
Foreign atoms that replace some of the atoms making up the solid or that squeeze into the interstices
Linear Defects : Dislocations
Edge Dislocations
The edge defect can be easily visualized as an extra half-plane of atoms in a lattice.
Screw Dislocations
The motion of a screw dislocation is also a result of shear stress, but the defect line movement is perpendicular to direction of the stress and the atom displacement, rather than parallel
Surface defects
Free surfaces
The structure of
the surface is derived from the pattern of atomic packing on the crystal plane that lies
parallel to the surface, and the behavior of the surface can often be inferred from that
pattern
Interfaces between crystals - Grain boundaries
The structure of a grain boundary depends on the misorientation of the crystal
grains that it separates. When the misorientation is small the boundary, which is then
called a low-angle boundary, is a reasonably simple planar array of dislocations.
Volume defects
Three dimensional aggregates of atoms or vacancies.