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The
Bravais lattice (Space Lattice) is a three-dimensional array of points
with the surroundings of each point being identical. The lattice is required
to have translational symmetry, and Bravais showed that there were only
14 distinct arrays that exhibited this property, and that these could be
7 groups. In order of decreasing overall symmetry these are the Cubic,
Tetragonal, Hexagonal, Rhombahedral, Orthorhombic, Monoclinic, and Triclinic
point lattices.
The
smallest unit of the lattice that exhibits the full symmetry is the Unit
Cell.
The
Bravais lattice defines the spatial component of a crystal structure, the
chemistry of the crystal is determined by the nature of the Basis that
is placed on each lattice point with the same composition and orientation. |
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