Tetragonal crystal system

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An example of the tetragonal crystals, wulfenite

In crystallography, the tetragonal crystal system is one of the 7 lattice point groups. Tetragonal crystal lattices result from stretching a cubic lattice along one of its lattice vectors, so that the cube becomes a rectangular prism with a square base (a by a) and height (c, which is different from a).

There are two tetragonal crystal structure types. Bravais lattices: the simple tetragonal (from stretching the simple-cubic lattice) and the centered tetragonal (from stretching either the face-centered or the body-centered cubic lattice). One might suppose stretching face-centered cubic would result in face-centered tetragonal, but face-centered tetragonal is equivalent to body-centered tetragonal, BCT (with a smaller lattice spacing). BCT is considered more fundamental, so that is the standard terminology.[1]

Tetragonal Bravais lattices
Name Primitive Body-centered
Pearson symbol tP tI
Unit cell Tetragonal.svg Tetragonal-body-centered.svg

Crystal classes

The point groups that fall under this crystal system are listed below, followed by their representations in international notation, Schoenflies notation, orbifold notation, Coxeter notation and mineral examples.[2][3]

# Point group Example Space groups
Class Intl Schoen. Orb. Cox.
75–80 Tetragonal pyramidal 4 C4 44 [4]+ pinnoite,
piypite
P4, P41, P42, P43
I4, I41
81–82 Tetragonal disphenoidal 4 S4 [2+,4+] cahnite, tugtupite P4
I4
83–88 Tetragonal dipyramidal 4/m C4h 4* [2,4+] scheelite, wulfenite, leucite P4/m, P42/m, P4/n, P42/n
I4/m, I41/a
89–98 Tetragonal trapezohedral 422 D4 224 [2,4]+ cristobalite, wardite P422, P4212, P4122, P41212, P4222, P42212, P4322, P43212
I422, I4122
99–110 Ditetragonal pyramidal 4mm C4v *44 [4] diaboleite P4mm, P4bm, P42cm, P42nm, P4cc, P4nc, P42mc, P42bc
I4mm, I4cm, I41md, I41cd
111–122 Tetragonal scalenohedral 42m D2d 2*2 [2+,4] chalcopyrite, stannite P42m, P42c, P421m, P421c, P4m2, P4c2, P4b2, P4n2
I4m2, I4c2, I42m, I42d
123–142 Ditetragonal dipyramidal 4/mmm D4h *224 [2,4] rutile, pyrolusite, zircon P4/mmm, P4/mcc, P4/nbm, P4/nnc, P4/mbm, P4/mnc, P4/nmm, P4/ncc, P42/mmc, P42/mcm, P42/nbc, P42/nnm, P42/mbc, P42/mnm, P42/nmc, P42/ncm
I4/mmm, I4/mcm, I41/amd, I41/acd

See also

References

  1. Cubic-to-Tetragonal Transition
  2. Webmineral data
  3. Hurlbut, Cornelius S.; Klein, Cornelis, 1985, Manual of Mineralogy, 20th ed., pp. 73–78, ISBN 0-471-80580-7