How Do Crystals Grow?
ES0506  Limited Space for Growth

If crystals grow by simply adding ordered arrangements of atoms or ions to their structure to get larger and larger, why aren't all crystals large and perfect?

  !   Click the images to play the animations below. Examine what happens when crystals run out of space.

Tara DeMarco, TERC
A diagrammatic representation of single crystals growing into one another.
IBM Research
Pentacene crystals growing into the same space.

6. Describe what happens when one growing crystal encounters another growing crystal.

 


	

 	

		
			
	

	
	

		 
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