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Geometry

  Reciprocal Vector, g     14 of 18
 
A very important property of a ghkl vector is that its magnitude (length) is 1/dhkl where dhkl is the spacing of the (hkl) planes. You can study the proof for this here.

In a crystal of any structure, ghkl is normal to the (hkl) plane and has a length inversely proportional to the interplanar spacing of the planes.

Have a go imageDrag the top white left-hand corner of the lattice shown opposite and resize the lattice to change the spacing of the green 111 image planes shown. Notice the effect on the length of the ghkl reciprocal vector. 

 

 
 

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