Clear view into glass: what glass looks like from the inside

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 have becomr the first to image 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.

The semiconductor industry likes to have complete control over its production - and it can now work with one unknown less.

Studies of glass undertaken by researchers in the group headed by Markus Heyde and Hans-Joachim Freund at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society have now provided several insights into the atomic structure of an important raw material used in the chip industry, which uses amorphous silica as an insulator in every transistor.