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ID: past-exam-of-the-materials-science-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/paper-1/1/a/solution
Past exam of the materials science course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Paper 1 1 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
A Bravais lattice is a set of equivalent points generated by integer combinations of three independent translation vectors. A crystal motif is the arrangement of atoms attached identically to every lattice point. Together they specify the periodic crystal structure: lattice translations repeat the motif without changing its internal arrangement.
A unit cell is a region whose translations tile the structure. A primitive unit cell contains one lattice point after sharing boundary points with neighboring cells. A conventional cell can contain more than one lattice point to display the crystal's symmetry with simple axes and angles; for example, a conventional face-centered cube has four lattice points but a less visually symmetric primitive cell has one.
Rotational symmetry compatible with a periodic three-dimensional lattice has order or , as expressed by the crystallographic restriction theorem. A crystallographic fivefold axis is excluded from an ordinary periodic crystal. This statement concerns exact lattice symmetry; it does not exclude local fivefold atomic arrangements or nonperiodic ordered structures.
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