X-rays reveal coexisting structures in glass
The craft of glassmaking extends way back in time. It was over five-thousand years ago when mankind learned how to make glass. Even prior to this discovery, humans had been using naturally occurring glass for tool making. Despite this long and rich history and widespread use of glass, surprisingly little is known about the interplay between the mechanical properties of glasses and their inner structures. For the first time, researchers from Amsterdam University (The Netherlands) and DESY have now monitored subtle structural changes in a glass made from microscopic silica spheres, which they exposed to shear stress. Using a unique experimental setup at DESY's PETRA III X-ray source, the scientists discovered coexisting structural states in the glass and related them to its flow behavior. The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports.