Intermetallics: structures, properties, and statistics

The focus of this book is clearly on the statistics, topology, and geometry of crystal structures and crystal structure types. This allows one to uncover important structural relationships and to illustrate the relative simplicity of most of the general structural building principles. It also allows one to show that a large variety of actual structures can be related to a rather small number of aristotypes. It is important that this book is readable and beneficial in the one way or another for everyone interested in intermetallic phases, from graduate students to experts in solid-state chemistry/physics/materials science. For that purpose it avoids using an enigmatic abstract terminology for the classification of structures. The focus on the statistical analysis of structures and structure types should be seen as an attempt to draw the background of the big picture of intermetallics, and to point to the white spots in it, which could be worthwhile exploring. This book was not planned as a textbook; rather, it should be a reference and guide through the incredibly rich world of intermetallic phases. In the first part of the book the basic concepts and tools are presented for the description of symmetry and structures of metallic elements and intermetallic phases, periodic and quasiperiodic ones, while in the second part the focus is on the discussion of their actual structures and properties.