Cubic Crystal System

The cubic crystal system, also called the isometric system, is the crystal system in which the unit cell is in the shape of a cube. The cited article calls this one of the most common and simplest shapes found in crystals and minerals, and names three main varieties of such crystals: primitive cubic, also called simple cubic, body-centered cubic and face-centered cubic. It cautions that the term face-centered cubic is often used synonymously with cubic close-packed structure in metals, although a face-centered cubic lattice is not necessarily close-packed, since the diamond and zincblende lattices are face-centered cubic but not close-packed. Materials whose crystals belong to this system are grouped under this concept.