Nico Graw (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)

Introduction to Crystallographic Space Groups

The video gives the very short introduction to symmetry elements and symmetry operations to then discuss symmetry in the solid state on chosen examples of archetype structures. On this basis space groups are introduced as assembles of symmetry elements which determine the arrangement of atoms, molecules or other chemical entities in a crystalline material. To clarify how the content of a unit cell is generated from the asymmetric unit by application of appropriate symmetry operations, three-dimensional models for space groups are discussed in detail. The two presented examples are the monoclinic space group P21 and the orthorhombic space group P21/c. For both cases it is shown how the three-dimensional arrangement of symmetry elements in the model correspond to the two-dimensional space group notation used in the International Tables of Crystallography, Volume A.

[Published on AVL 2023]