513.001 Molecular and Solid State Physics

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Wolfram Alpha

Physical
Constants

Periodic System
of Elements

      

Copper oxide planes

Many high temperature superconductors (like YBa2Cu3Ox) contain planes of copper oxide. In the drawing below, the black circles represent the copper atoms and the white circles represent the oxygen atoms. The oxygen atoms are either a little above the plane or a little below the plane. This is indicated by the + and - signs.

(a) Draw a unit cell indicating the two primitive lattice vectors in this plane. How many atoms are there in the primitive unit cell?

(b) Draw the two dimensional Bravais lattice giving the lattice spacing in terms of a.