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Unit cell

From Online Dictionary of Crystallography

Revision as of 08:38, 12 April 2007 by MassimoNespolo (talk | contribs) (See also)

Unit cell

Other languages

Maille élémentaire (Fr). Einheitszelle (Ge);. Celda unidad (Sp); элементарная ячейка (Ru); Cella elementare (It); 単位胞(単位格子) (Ja).

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