<title>Research on the microstructure of ceramic glass and its polished surface quality</title>

Abstract

Ceramic glass has been increasingly available in the field of optics and others due to its excellent performance. So the demands of precisely processed surface quality has constantly increased. There is difference in its processing performance with the homogeneous materials because it consists of crystallization phases and glass phases. In this paper the internal structure of ceramic glass is considered. The crystallization phases is polycrystalline structure, the crystal grain is very small, and its main crystallization phases is (beta) -solid solution of quartz. There is remaining glass phases distribution among crystal grains. Tested by X-ray diffraction, the size of crystallite measured is between 300 and 400 angstroms and there is about 20 percent of glass phases. The surface appearance and surface defect of ceramic glass are also presented after cryogenic polishing. Because ceramic glass is constituted with crystallite, which is free-orientation, it is not compact compared with K9 glass and fused quartz. So the super-smooth surface of the ceramic glass is not as good as that of the compact material.© (2001) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.