Primitive Bravais Lattices

If you take all the symmetry elements and combine them with a lattice, you come up the 14 Bravais lattices. 7 of these are what are called primitive lattices because they contain one lattice point per unit cell. (We'll get to non-primitive lattices in a little bit). Here's a tabulation of the 7 primitive lattices showing their names and the conditions relating their unit cell parameters.

triclinic -

monoclinic (first setting) -

monoclinic (second setting) - (most common orientation)

orthorhombic -

trigonal - rhombohedral lattice -

(can also be described with a hexagonal unit cell: )

tetragonal -

hexagonal -

cubic -

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copyright © Ron Stenkamp stenkamp@u.washington.edu Most recent update 4/1/03