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A primitive cell is a unit cell that contains exactly one lattice point. For unit cells generally, lattice points that are shared by n cells are counted as 1 / n of the lattice points contained in each of those cells; so for example a primitive unit cell in three dimensions which has lattice points only at its eight vertices is considered to contain 1 / 8 of each of them. [3]
Primitive unit cells are defined as unit cells with the smallest volume for a given crystal. (A crystal is a lattice and a basis at every lattice point.) To have the smallest cell volume, a primitive unit cell must contain (1) only one lattice point and (2) the minimum amount of basis constituents (e.g., the minimum number of atoms in a basis).
The Wigner–Seitz cell, named after Eugene Wigner and Frederick Seitz, is a primitive cell which has been constructed by applying Voronoi decomposition to a crystal lattice. It is used in the study of crystalline materials in crystallography. Wigner–Seitz primitive cell for different angle parallelogram lattices.
A lattice in which the conventional basis is primitive is called a primitive lattice, while a lattice with a non-primitive conventional basis is called a centered lattice. The choice of an origin and a basis implies the choice of a unit cell which can further be used to describe a crystal pattern.
A network model of a primitive cubic system The primitive and cubic close-packed (also known as face-centered cubic) unit cells. In crystallography, the cubic (or isometric) crystal system is a crystal system where the unit cell is in the shape of a cube. This is one of the most common and simplest shapes found in crystals and minerals.
Unit cell For the base-centered monoclinic lattice, the primitive cell has the shape of an oblique rhombic prism; [ 1 ] it can be constructed because the two-dimensional centered rectangular base layer can also be described with primitive rhombic axes.
In either case, there are 3 lattice points per unit cell in total and the lattice is non-primitive. The Bravais lattices in the hexagonal crystal family can also be described by rhombohedral axes. [4] The unit cell is a rhombohedron (which gives the name for the rhombohedral lattice). This is a unit cell with parameters a = b = c; α = β = γ ...
The primitive rectangular lattice can also be described by a centered rhombic unit cell, while the centered rectangular lattice can also be described by a primitive rhombic unit cell. Note that the length a {\displaystyle a} in the lower row is not the same as in the upper row.