unit cell

American  

noun

Crystallography.

1. the simplest unit of a regular lattice.

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unit cell British  

noun

1. crystallog the smallest group of atoms, ions, or molecules that is characteristic of a particular crystal lattice

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Etymology

Origin of unit cell

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

Ice XXI shows an unusually large and intricate unit cell compared to other known phases.

From Science Daily

Last week, a 34-year-old man was found unconscious in a medical unit cell at the jail, where he had been held since 2019.

From BBC

Ventura said that corrections officers found the unidentified man unresponsive in a single unit cell Tuesday at John J. Moran Medium Security facility.

From Washington Times

This halves the size of the Brillouin zone — a unit cell of the abstract ‘momentum space’ that is used to describe the properties of electrons in semiconductors.

From Nature

The atomic or molecular order in a crystal is defined by the unit cell, which is the smallest repeating unit of the crystal structure.

From Nature