Crystal Lattice Viewer
Explore common crystal structures in 3D. Rotate by dragging, zoom with the scroll wheel. Toggle bonds, unit cell outlines, atom labels, and expand to a supercell.
Crystal Structures
Crystalline solids arrange their atoms in periodic lattice patterns. The unit cell is the smallest repeating unit that tiles to fill all space. Different arrangements yield different physical properties: density, strength, ductility.
Common Structures
Simple Cubic (SC) has atoms only at corners — the least efficient packing (52%). BCC adds a center atom (68% packing, found in iron and tungsten). FCC and HCP both achieve the theoretical maximum packing of 74% (aluminum, copper, gold for FCC; titanium, zinc for HCP). Diamond Cubic has just 34% packing but each atom has exactly 4 neighbors in a tetrahedral arrangement (carbon, silicon, germanium).
Coordination Number
The coordination number is the count of nearest neighbors for each atom. SC: 6, BCC: 8, FCC: 12, HCP: 12, Diamond: 4. Higher coordination generally means denser, more metallic bonding.