In a wider sense, the term "superstructure" is applied to polymers and proteins to describe ordering on a length scale larger than that of monomeric segments.
In some cases a phase transition occurs, e.g., at higher temperatures, where the superstructure disappears and the material reverts to the simpler substructure.
If the superspots are located at simple fractions of the vectors of the reciprocal lattice of the substructure, e.g., at q=(½,0,0), the resulting broken symmetry is a multiple of the unit cell along that axis.
At lower temperatures ordering may occur where crystallographic positions are no longer equivalent because one element preferentially occupies one site and the other the other.
A good example is found in the structural transitions of 1T-TaS2, a compound with a partially filled, narrow d band (Ta(IV) has a d1 configuration).