Crystal pattern

Motif cristallin (Fr). Motivo cristallino(It). 結晶模様 (Ja)

A crystal pattern is the idalized image of a crystal structure obtained by neglecting all the defects of the crystal structure and making it infinitely periodic.

The importance of the concept of crystal pattern becomes immediately evident if one considers that the operations of a space group are symmetry operations of the crystal pattern and not - rigorously speaking - of the crystal structure.

See also

• Point space
• International Tables of Crystallography, Volume A1