unit cell

unit cell There are two types of unit cells: primitive and non-primitive. A unit cell that contains only one type of lattice point is called a primitive unit cell, which is made up from the lattice points at each of the corners. In case of non-primitive unit cells, there are additional lattice points, either on a face of the unit cell or with in the unit cell. Primitive Non-Primitive There are seven primitive crystal systems; cubic, tetragonal, orthorhombic, hexagonal, monoclinic, triclinic and rhombohedral. They differ in the arrangement of their crystallographic axes and angles. Corresponding to the above seven, Bravais defined possible crystal systems as shown in the figure.