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crystal: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As crystal structure • crystalline solid

Photos and Videos

A rough, translucent yellow crystal of elemental sulfur displayed against a solid black background.
cubic lattices
layered atoms
crystal structures
boron molecules
crystalline lattice defect
incident rays
Diagram showing four types of crystal bonding: ionic bonding with sodium and chlorine ions, covalent bonding with carbon atoms sharing electrons, metallic bonding with iron ions surrounded by free electrons, and molecular bonding with hydrogen molecules held by weak electrical attraction.
Czochralski process
Diagram of a germanium crystal lattice showing how the absence of an electron, called a hole, moves through the structure as electrons jump between atoms, with arrows and labels explaining each step.
A cluster of purple crystals with jagged surfaces sits on a black background, illustrating the result of the crystallization process.
What Are the Seven Basic Crystal Systems?
Animated snowflake against a dark background.
Fascinating facts about crystals
Learn about magnetic fields and the levels of particles, atoms, crystals, and domains
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Related Topics and References

Topics
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Key People

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Ralph Walter Graystone Wyckoff
American chemist
Steno, Nicolaus
Nicolaus Steno
Danish geologist
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Max von Laue
German physicist
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Georges Friedel
French crystallographer
Engraved portrait of Rene Just Hauy, French priest and mineralogist, shown from the chest up in formal attire, with his name printed below.
René-Just Haüy
French mineralogist
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, 2006.
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes
French physicist
Torbern Bergman, detail of an oil painting by Per Krafft; in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm
Torbern Olof Bergman
Swedish chemist and naturalist
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Bertram Eugene Warren
American crystallographer
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Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt
German crystallographer
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Charles Mauguin
French mineralogist