From thin silicate films to the atomic structure of glass
Glass ranks as one of the most important materials of our age. You have only to think about smartphones, or drinking glasses, or look out of the window to realise that glass in its various forms is omnipresent. Fibre-optic cables transport our emails and research work out into the world, and buildings without architectural window glass are hardly conceivable nowadays. Glass plays an important role in everyday life without us being aware of its complex structure. The most common types of glass are based on silicon dioxide. Its structure is taken as the prototype for amorphous networks. The term glass is used synonymously for amorphous materials here. The material properties can be modified by adding different additives to glass. But although researchers have been investigating glass for many decades, we have only a vague idea of its atomic structure. This information in particular is crucial for the characterisation and understanding...