Phase of a Bloch state across the unit cells

Each cell is identical and the orbital amplitude is the same in every cell. Only the phase changes from cell to cell, winding by k·a per step. Drag k from Γ (zone centre) to the boundary and watch the winding.

k = π/a
phase per cell k·a =
wavelength λ = cells
phase ≈ +1 (real part positive)    phase ≈ −1 (real part negative)    near ±90°
Clocks = the phasor eik·R for each cell. Solid curve = Re ψ(x); dashed = the fixed amplitude envelope ±|u(x)|, identical in every cell.