zinc blende structure. The yellow spheres represent the sulfide ions and the blue spheres represent the zinc(II) ions.
Examine the images and note how the sulfide ions lie in an expanded cubic closest-packed structure. The zinc(II) ions, which are smaller than the sulfide ions, are inserted into tetrahedral holes and push the sulfide ions apart so that no two sulfide ions are in contact with each other. The resulting structure has (4,4)-coordination. Observe that none of the octahedral holes are occupied.