| Although crystalline solids have short range as well as long range order in the arrangement of
their constituent particles, yet crystals are not perfect. Usually a solid consists of an aggregate of
large number of small crystals. These small crystals have defects in them. This happens when
crystallisation process occurs at fast or moderate rate. Single crystals are formed when the process
of crystallisation occurs at extremely slow rate. Even these crystals are not free of defects. The
defects are basically irregularities in the arrangement of constituent particles. Broadly speaking, the
defects are of two types, namely, point defects and line defects. Point defects can be classified into
three types : (i) stoichiometric defects (ii) impurity defects and (iii) non-stoichiometric defects. These
are even classified into many such as Frenkel defect, Schottky defect, metal excess defect and so on. |