Crystals are made of infinite number of unit cells

Unit cell is the smallest unit of a crystal, which, if repeated, could generate the whole crystal.

A crystals unit cell dimensions are defined by six numbers, the lengths of the 3 axes, a, b, and c, and the three interaxial angles, , and .

A crystal lattice is a 3-D stack of unit cells

Crystal lattice is an imaginative grid system in three dimensions in which every point (or node) has an environment that is identical to that of any other point or node.

Crystal system
Crystals are grouped into seven crystal systems, according to characteristic symmetry of their unit cell. The characteristic symmetry of a crystal is a combination of one or more rotations and inversions.

7 Crystal Systems
monoclinic orthorhombic tetragonal triclinic hexagonal

cubic

trigonal

Crystal System Triclinic Monoclinic Orthorhombic Tetragonal Trigonal Hexagonal Cubic

External Minimum Symmetry None One 2-fold axis, || to b (b unique) Three perpendicular 2-folds One 4-fold axis, parallel c One 3-fold axis One 6-fold axis Four 3-folds along space diagonal

Unit Cell Properties a, b, c, al, be, ga, a, b, c, 90, be, 90 a, b, c, 90, 90, 90 a, a, c, 90, 90, 90 a, a, c, 90, 90, 120 a, a, c, 90, 90, 120 a, a, ,a, 90, 90, 90

Principle Metal Crystal Structures

There are three principle crystal structures for metals:
(a) Body-centered cubic (BCC) (b) Face-centered cubic (FCC) (c) Hexagonal close-packed (HCP)

Body-centered cubic (BCC)

Face-centered cubic (FCC)

Hexagonal close-packed (HCP)