Brillouin zone
E48477
The Brillouin zone is the fundamental region of reciprocal space in a crystal lattice, defining the allowed wavevectors for electrons and underpinning the structure of electronic band diagrams.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Brillouin zone canonical | 3 |
| Brillouin zone boundaries | 1 |
| Brillouin zone folding | 1 |
| Brillouin zones | 1 |
| Wigner–Seitz cell in reciprocal space | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T380057 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Brillouin zone Context triple: [Fermi surface, relatedTo, Brillouin zone]
-
A.
Fermi surface
The Fermi surface is the boundary in momentum space separating occupied from unoccupied electron states at zero temperature, crucial for determining a metal’s electronic and superconducting properties.
-
B.
Poisson spot
Poisson spot is a bright point of light that appears at the center of the shadow of a circular object due to wave diffraction, providing striking evidence for the wave nature of light.
-
C.
Fresnel zone plates
Fresnel zone plates are diffractive optical elements composed of concentric rings that focus light through interference rather than refraction, serving as lens alternatives in applications like X-ray and microscopy.
-
D.
Fraunhofer diffraction
Fraunhofer diffraction is the far-field diffraction pattern of waves, typically light, observed when both the source and observation screen are effectively at infinite distance or made so with lenses, producing characteristic interference patterns.
-
E.
Eliashberg theory
Eliashberg theory is an extension of BCS superconductivity that incorporates strong-coupling and frequency-dependent effects to more accurately describe real superconducting materials.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Brillouin zone Target entity description: The Brillouin zone is the fundamental region of reciprocal space in a crystal lattice, defining the allowed wavevectors for electrons and underpinning the structure of electronic band diagrams.
-
A.
Fermi surface
The Fermi surface is the boundary in momentum space separating occupied from unoccupied electron states at zero temperature, crucial for determining a metal’s electronic and superconducting properties.
-
B.
Poisson spot
Poisson spot is a bright point of light that appears at the center of the shadow of a circular object due to wave diffraction, providing striking evidence for the wave nature of light.
-
C.
Fresnel zone plates
Fresnel zone plates are diffractive optical elements composed of concentric rings that focus light through interference rather than refraction, serving as lens alternatives in applications like X-ray and microscopy.
-
D.
Fraunhofer diffraction
Fraunhofer diffraction is the far-field diffraction pattern of waves, typically light, observed when both the source and observation screen are effectively at infinite distance or made so with lenses, producing characteristic interference patterns.
-
E.
Eliashberg theory
Eliashberg theory is an extension of BCS superconductivity that incorporates strong-coupling and frequency-dependent effects to more accurately describe real superconducting materials.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
concept in solid-state physics
ⓘ
region of reciprocal space ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
crystalline solids
ⓘ
periodic potentials ⓘ |
| boundaryDefinedBy |
Bragg reflection conditions
ⓘ
planes perpendicular to reciprocal lattice vectors ⓘ |
| characterizes | allowed wavevectors in a crystal ⓘ |
| definedIn | reciprocal lattice ⓘ |
| dependsOn | crystal lattice symmetry ⓘ |
| describes | fundamental region of reciprocal space ⓘ |
| dimensionEquals | dimension of the crystal lattice ⓘ |
| field |
condensed matter physics
ⓘ
crystallography ⓘ solid-state physics ⓘ |
| firstDefinedBy | Léon Brillouin ⓘ |
| hasGeneralization |
extended zone scheme
ⓘ
reduced zone scheme ⓘ repeated zone scheme ⓘ |
| hasOrder |
first Brillouin zone
ⓘ
higher-order Brillouin zones ⓘ second Brillouin zone ⓘ |
| hasPart |
high-symmetry lines
ⓘ
high-symmetry planes ⓘ high-symmetry points ⓘ |
| hasProperty |
bounded by Bragg planes
ⓘ
contains all inequivalent k-vectors ⓘ periodic under reciprocal lattice translations ⓘ |
| is |
Brillouin zone
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Wigner–Seitz cell in reciprocal space
|
| mathematicallyConstructedAs | set of points closer to origin than to any other reciprocal lattice point ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Léon Brillouin ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Bloch waves
ⓘ
surface form:
Bloch's theorem
Fermi surface ⓘ band gap ⓘ dispersion relation ⓘ electron dispersion ⓘ phonon dispersion ⓘ reciprocal lattice vector ⓘ |
| shapeDependsOn | Bravais lattice type ⓘ |
| usedFor |
Bloch wavevector labeling
ⓘ
analysis of electron states in crystals ⓘ classification of phonon modes ⓘ construction of electronic band structures ⓘ |
| usedIn |
X-ray scattering analysis
ⓘ
angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy analysis ⓘ band structure diagrams ⓘ electron diffraction analysis ⓘ neutron scattering analysis ⓘ |
| usedToExplain |
Umklapp scattering
ⓘ
band folding ⓘ energy band gaps at zone boundaries ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Brillouin zone Description of subject: The Brillouin zone is the fundamental region of reciprocal space in a crystal lattice, defining the allowed wavevectors for electrons and underpinning the structure of electronic band diagrams.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Brillouin zone boundaries
this entity surface form:
Wigner–Seitz cell in reciprocal space
this entity surface form:
Brillouin zone folding
this entity surface form:
Brillouin zones