Nushrat Naushin

3 DIMENSIONAL CRYSTAL SYSTEMS Lecturer,

Department of MSE,
KUET
BRAVAIS LATTICES AND CRYSTAL SYSTEMS
In 3D the symmetry elements required are:
1) Point symmetry elements
2) Translational symmetry elements (like glide lines in 2 dimensional case)
These are the same elements as 2D. For 3 dimensional case some additional
symmetry elements are required:
Additional point symmetry elements:
Centers of symmetry
Mirror planes (instead of lines)
Inversion axes
Additional translational elements:
Glide planes
Screw axes

In 2D there were: In 3D there are:

5 Crystal systems 14 Crystal systems

10 Point group Symmetries 32 Point Group Symmetries!

17 Plane groups 230 Space Groups!!!

7 3-DIMENTIONAL CRYSTAL CLASSES

No rotation axes for which

lattice is invariant.

180 degree rotation possible

when two angles are equal to
90 degrees.

60 degree rotation axis along the c

direction
120 degree rotation along body diagonal leaves the crystal
invariant.

Three 180 degree rotational axes going through the

centers of each faces.

Single rotational axis of 90 degrees going through the

centers of the opposite square faces and a 180 degrees
rotation angles through the center of the opposite non-
square faces.
90 degree rotation around any axis normal to one of the face
and going through center of the face.
120 degree rotational symmetry along body diagonals.
180 degree rotational symmetry along any axis going through
the centers of the edges. It has mirror symmetry also.
14 BRAVAIS LATTICES
The systematic work of describing and enumerating the space lattices was done
initially by Frankenheim, who in 1835 proposed that there are 15 space lattices.
Unfortunately, two of his lattices were identical, a fact first pointed out by Bravais in
1848.
It was, to take a two-dimensional analogy, as if Frankenheim had failed to notice that
the rhombic or diamond and the rectangular centred plane lattices were identical!
Hence, to this day, the fourteen space lattices are usually, and perhaps unfairly,
called Bravais lattices!!
14 BRAVAIS LATTICES
P= Primitive
I= Body centered (Innenzentriarte)
F= Face centered
C= Base centeres (Faces are
intersected by c-axis)
REFERENCES

1) Hammond C., The basics of crystallography and diffraction, chapter 3

2) Graef and McHenry, Structure of Materials: An Introduction to Crystallography,
Diffraction, and Symmetry, chapter 3.