The Fascination of Crystals and Symmetry

Unit 1.8

The 7 Crystal Systems

Unit Cell Definition

The unit cell is the unit, which builds up the whole crystal structure by
repeated translations along all three spatial directions.
z
z

Unit Cell Attributes

z

Metric

it is defined by six cell/lattice parameters

the three cell/lattice constants, the lengths of the edges (a, b, and c)
and three angles between these edges (, , and )

Symmetry

it contains all present symmetry elements

defines the minimum size of the unit cell

Chemical Composition (Stoichiometry)

H2O
2H:1O

HO HO HO
HO HO HO

the chemical content of an unit cell corresponds to the

chemical composition of the considered compound (!)

H2O H2O H2O H2O H2O H2O

H2O H2O H2O H2O H2O H2O

The 7 crystal systems (metric, system of coordinates)

z

Classification of unit cells

Every imaginable crystal of the world belongs to one
of altogether 7 possible crystal systems

restrictions for

cell constants

cell angles

triclinic

none

monoclinic

none
none

orthorhombic

none

a = b = g = 90

tetragonal

a=b

a = b = g = 90

trigonal

a=b

a = b = 90; g = 120

hexagonal

a=b

a = b = 90; g = 120
a = b = g = 90

cubic
symmetry
hexagonal crystal family

a=b=c

a = g = 90

The 7 crystal systems (metric, system of coordinates)

z

Classification of unit cells

Every imaginable crystal of the world belongs to one
of altogether 7 possible crystal systems

symmetry

restrictions for

cell constants

cell angles

maximum
symmetry

triclinic

none

monoclinic

none
none

orthorhombic

none

a = b = g = 90

mmm

tetragonal

a=b

a = b = g = 90

4/mmm

trigonal

a=b

a = b = 90; g = 120

3m

hexagonal

a=b

a = b = 90; g = 120
a = b = g = 90

6/mmm

cubic

a=b=c

a = g = 90

2/m

m3m

The 7 crystal systems (metric, system of coordinates)

z

Warning!
You will find such a table in almost every text book of
crystallography.

However, in most text books this table looks like this

and this is simply wrong!
cell constants

angles

a b g 90

monoclinic

abc
abc

orthorhombic

abc

a = b = g = 90

tetragonal

a=bc

a = b = g = 90

trigonal

a=bc

a = b = 90; g = 120

hexagonal

a=bc

cubic

a=b=c

a = b = 90; g = 120
a = b = g = 90

triclinic

a = g = 90, b 90

The 7 crystal systems (metric, system of coordinates)

z

VIMs (Very Important Messages)

The cell parameters give only an indication of the underlying symmetry!

It is not the metric which determines the symmetry!

It is the other way round: the symmetry determines the metric,

although not in a biunique way.

Crystals, which belong to the triclinic crystal system (according to their

symmetry), may have coincidentally cell parameters like this:
a=b=c

a = b = g = 90

Vice versa: A crystal of the cubic crystal system has (necessarily and due to the
symmetry!) always the following cell parameters:
a=b=c

a = b = g = 90

The 7 crystal systems (metric, system of coordinates)

Exercise

An analysis of a crystal gave the following unit cell parameters:

a = b = 12 , c = 12.1
c

Which of the different crystal systems could this crystal belong to?
tetragonal

a = b = g = 90

orthorhombic

monoclinic

triclinic