Actions

Difference between revisions of "Unit cell"

From Online Dictionary of Crystallography

(Other languages)
(See also)
Line 14: Line 14:
 
= See also =
 
= See also =
  
 +
[[conventional cell]]
 
[[direct lattice]]
 
[[direct lattice]]
  

Revision as of 16:40, 23 February 2007

Unit cell

Other languages

Maille élémentaire (Fr). Einheitszelle (Ge). Celda unidad (Sp). элементарная ячейка (Ru). Cella elementare (It)

Definition

The unit cell is the parallelepiped built on the vectors, a, b, c, of a crystallographic basis of the direct lattice. Its volume is given by the triple scalar product, V = (a, b, c).

If the basis is primitive, the unit cell is called the primitive cell. It contains only one lattice point. If the basis is non-primitive, the unit cell is a multiple cell and it contains more than one lattice point. The multiplicity of the cell is given by the ratio of its volume to the volume of a primitive cell.


See also

conventional cell direct lattice

Section 8.1 of International Tables of Crystallography, Volume A