In Simple Cubic (SC) structure, atoms lie on the corners of a cube as shown in Fig. 3.3a. Very few crystals exhibit this structure. For example polonium exhibits this structure over a narrow range of temperatures. In this structure each atom has six equidistant nearest neighbors.

In Body centered Cubic (BCC) structure, structure atoms lie on the corners of a cube with an additional atom at the centre of the cube as shown in Fig. 3.3b. Its atomic positions are (000), (100), (010), (001), (101), (110), (011), (111) and ( , , ). Metals like Molybdenum, tantalum (Ta) and tungsten (W), iron (Fe), Platinum (Pt), Sodium (Na) and Potassium (K) have this structure. In this structure each atom has eight nearest neighbours. By placement of an atom at the center of the cube, the body-centered cubic structure has twice the atom density of the simple cubic lattice.

In Face centered Cubic (FCC) structure, atoms lie on the corners of a cube with additional atoms at the centers of each cube face as shown in Fig. 3.3c. Its atomic positions are (000), (100), (010), (001), (101), (110), (011), (111), (, , 0), (, 0, ), ( 0, , ), , , 0), (, 1, , 0) and (1, , ). In this structure each atom has twelve equidistant nearest neighbours. Due to its low energy, FCC is extremely common and the examples are lead (Pb), aluminum (Al), copper (Cu), and gold (Au).