The designations were established by the journal Zeitschrift für Kristallographie – Crystalline Materials, which published its first round of supplemental reviews under the name Strukturbericht from 1913-1928.4 These reports were collected into a book published in 1931 by Paul Peter Ewald and Carl Hermann which became Volume 1 of Strukturbericht.5 While the series was continued after the war under the name Structure reports, which was published through 1990,6 the series stopped generating new symbols. Instead, some new additional designations were given in books by Smithels,7 and Pearson.8
For the first volume, the designation consisted of a capital letter (A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,L,M,O) specifying a broad category of compounds, and then a number to specify a particular crystal structure. In the second volume, subscript numbers were added, some early symbols were modified (e.g. what was initially D1 became D01, noted in the tables below as "D1 → D01"), and the categories were modified (types I,K,S were added). In the third volume, the class I was renamed J. Later designations began to use a lower case letter in subscripts as well.9
The 'A' compounds are reserved for structures made up of atoms of all the same chemical element.
(ABAC Barlow packing)
'B' designates compounds of two elements with equal numbers of atoms.
'C' designates compounds of the stoichiometry AB2.
(ABCBCACAB Barlow packing)
'D' designates compounds of arbitrary stoichiometry. Originally, D1-D10 were set aside for stoichiometry AB3, D11-D20 for stoichiometry ABn for n > 3, D31-D50 for (ABn)2, and D51 up for the AmBn for arbitrary m and n.13
(G-phase)
Letters between 'E' and 'K' designate more complex compounds.
'L' designates intermetallic compounds.
"Index by Strukturbericht Designation". US Naval Laboratory Center for Materials Physics and Technology. 1 Sep 1995. Archived from the original on 12 September 2019. Retrieved 6 Apr 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190912194828/http://aflowlib.duke.edu/users/egossett/lattice/struk/index.html ↩
Mehl, Michael J.; Hicks, David; Toher, Cormac; Levy, Ohad; Hanson, Robert M.; Hart, Gus; Curtarolo, Stefano (2017). "The AFLOW Library of Crystallographic Prototypes: Part 1". Computational Materials Science. 136: S1 – S828. arXiv:1806.07864. doi:10.1016/j.commatsci.2017.01.017. ISSN 0927-0256. S2CID 119490841. /wiki/ArXiv_(identifier) ↩
Allmann, Rudolf; Hinek, Roland (2007-08-17). "The introduction of structure types into the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database ICSD". Acta Crystallographica Section A. 63 (5). International Union of Crystallography (IUCr): 412–417. Bibcode:2007AcCrA..63..412A. doi:10.1107/s0108767307038081. ISSN 0108-7673. PMC 2525864. PMID 17703075. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2525864 ↩
Bragg, W. L. (1931). "Strukturbericht, 1913–1928". Nature. 128 (3230): 511–512. Bibcode:1931Natur.128..511B. doi:10.1038/128511a0. ISSN 0028-0836. S2CID 4079798. /wiki/Lawrence_Bragg ↩
Ewald, Paul Peter; Hermann, C. (1931). Zeitschrift für Kristallographie, Kristallgeometrie, Kristallphysik, Kristallchemie. Leipzig: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft m.b.H. /wiki/Akademische_Verlagsgesellschaft_m.b.H. ↩
"International Union of Crystallography: Structure reports". Retrieved 6 Apr 2019. https://www.iucr.org/publications/other/structure-reports ↩
Smithells, Colin J (1949). Metals reference book (2nd ed.). New York: Interscience Publishers. OCLC 568858. /wiki/OCLC_(identifier) ↩
Pearson, W. B. (1964). A handbook of lattice spacings and structures of metals and alloys. Oxford: Pergamon Press. doi:10.1016/C2013-0-08243-6. ISBN 978-1-4832-1318-7. OCLC 883896503. S2CID 239866683. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) 978-1-4832-1318-7 ↩
Mehl, Michael J. (2019). "A Brief History of Strukturbericht Symbols and Other Crystallographic Classification Schemes". Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 1290 (1). IOP Publishing: 012016. Bibcode:2019JPhCS1290a2016M. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1290/1/012016. ISSN 1742-6588. https://doi.org/10.1088%2F1742-6596%2F1290%2F1%2F012016 ↩
Keesom, W.H.; Taconis, K.W. (1936). "On the crystal structure of chlorine". Physica. 3 (1–4). Elsevier BV: 237–242. Bibcode:1936Phy.....3..237K. doi:10.1016/s0031-8914(36)80226-2. ISSN 0031-8914. /wiki/Bibcode_(identifier) ↩
PEASE, R. S. (1950). "Crystal Structure of Boron Nitride". Nature. 165 (4201). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 722–723. Bibcode:1950Natur.165..722P. doi:10.1038/165722b0. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 15416803. S2CID 2503156. /wiki/Bibcode_(identifier) ↩
Berastegui, P.; Hull, S. (2000). "The Crystal Structures of Thallium(I) Fluoride". Journal of Solid State Chemistry. 150 (2). Elsevier BV: 266–275. Bibcode:2000JSSCh.150..266B. doi:10.1006/jssc.1999.8587. ISSN 0022-4596. /wiki/Bibcode_(identifier) ↩