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Crystals

Growth, Morphology, and Perfection

How do crystals nucleate and grow? Why and how do crystals form such a wide variety of morphologies, from polyhedral to dendritic and spherulitic forms? These are questions that have been posed since the seventeenth century, and are still of vital importance today, both for modern technology, and to understand the Earth’s interior and the formation of minerals by living organisms. In this book, Ichiro Sunagawa sets out clearly the atomic processes behind crystal growth, and describes case studies of complex systems from diamond, calcite, and pyrite, to crystals formed through biomineralization, such as the aragonite of shells, and apatite of teeth. It will be essential reading for advanced graduates and researchers in mineralogy and materials science.

I c h i r o S u n a g awa is the Principal of the Yamanashi Institute of Gemmology and Jewellery Arts, and Emeritus Professor at Tohoku University. He has written or edited a number of books in English or Japanese, including Morphology of Crystals

(1988) and Handbook of Crystal Growth (2000). His contribution to the scientific literature is considerable, with over 200 papers in English and more than 300 in Japanese.

Crystals

Growth, Morphology,

and Perfection

Ichiro

Sunagawa

Tohoku University

Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo

Cambridge University Press

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge , UK

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.org

Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521841894

© Cambridge University Press 2005

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published in print format 2005

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy ofs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Contents

3.6Nucleation 32

3.7 Lattice defects 34

3.8Interfaces 37

3.9 Spiral growth 44

vi Contents

3.13Morphodroms 53

3.14 Element partitioning 56

3.15Inclusions 57

References 58

5.9Bunching 107

5.10Etching 110

5.11 Surface microtopography: Tracht and Habitus 113

References 114 Suggested reading 115

7.2Twinning 128

7.3 Parallel growth and other intergrowth 137

7.4Epitaxy 140

7.5 Exsolution, precipitation, and spinodal decomposition 145

viii Contents

13.1Kaolin group minerals formed by hydrothermal replacement

14.2Inorganic crystals formed as indispensable components in biological activity 264