Primitive cell
In geometry and other fields, a primitive cell is a specific type of unit cell.
Description
A primitive cell is constructed so that it contains only one lattice point (each vertex of the cell sits on a lattice point which is shared with the surrounding cells, each lattice point is said to contribute 1/n to the total number of lattice points in the cell where n is the number of cells sharing the lattice point).
A primitive cell is built on the primitive basis of the direct lattice, namely a crystallographic basis of the vector lattice L such that every lattice vector t of L may be obtained as an integral linear combination of the basis vectors, a, b, c.
Used predominantly in geometry, solid state physics, and mineralogy, particularly in describing crystal structure, a primitive cell is a minimum volume cell corresponding to a single lattice point of a structure with translational symmetry in 2 dimensions, 3 dimensions, or other dimensions.
A lattice can be characterized by the geometry of its primitive cell.
See also
Bravais lattice Crystal Geometry Space group Wallpaper group
External links
- Primitive cell @ Wikipedia
