In a crystal, a superstructure manifests itself through additional reflections in diffraction patterns, e.g., in low energy electron diffraction (LEED) or X-ray diffraction experiments. Often a set of weak diffraction spots appears between the stronger spots belonging to what is referred to as the substructure. In some cases a phase transition occurs, e.g., at higher temperatures, where the superstructure disappears and the material reverts to the simpler substructure. Not all compounds exhibit a superstructure.
The superspots in diffraction patterns represent a modulation of the substructure that causes the inherent translation symmetry of the (substructure) lattice to be violated slightly or the size of the repeat motif of the structure to be increased. One could speak of symmetry breaking of the translation symmetry of the lattice, although rotational symmetry may be lost simultaneously.