SCIENCE - Clear view into glass: Researchers have analysed the atomic structure of amorphous silica

We can look through glass, but what glass itself looks like on the inside has so far remained a mystery - at least as far as the precise position of the atoms is concerned. Scientists at the Fritz-Haber-Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin are now the first to have imaged the network of silicon and oxygen atoms - the main components of glass - in a silica film. They used two methods that image individual atoms in surfaces to analyse the glass film, which is a mere two atomic layers thick. Being able to see the atomic structure enabled the researchers to confirm that glass is structured as the Norwegian-American physicist William H. Zachariasen predicted back in 1932. Moreover, in further studies, the researchers observed the transition from a crystalline to a disordered - scientists call it amorphous - two-dimensional structure. Their findings could assist the semiconductor industry, for example, to produce amorphous silica in a more controlled way, and should also facilitate the search for new, more powerful catalysts.

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