simple cubic
body-centred cubic
face-centred cubic
hexagonal
Metals crystallize in regular crystalline arrays called lattices.
The entire lattice can be described by its unit cell. This is the smallest unit of the lattice which if translated in three dimensions would generate the entire lattice.
The descriptions of the unit cells depends on the atom positions.
The entire lattice can be described by its unit cell. This is the smallest unit of the lattice which if translated in three dimensions would generate the entire lattice.
The unit cell can be viewed as blocks that stack together to give the entire lattice.
Move your mouse over the portions of the lattices given to see their unit cell. In these cases the unit cell corners are at atom centers.The descriptions of the unit cells depends on the atom positions.
- simple cubic (at corners of cube)
- body-centered cubic (at corners and centre of cube)
- face-centered cubic (at corners of cube and center of each face)
- hexagonal
Examine each of the lattices (and its unit cell) to see if you can understand the names in terms of the arrangement of atoms in the various lattices.