Neutron scattering from vitreous silica. V. The structure of vitreous silica: What have we learned from 60 years of diffraction studies?

Abstract

A quantitative assessment is presented of the structural information derived from X-ray and neutron diffraction and small angle scattering investigations of vitreous silica, starting from the classic studies of Warren and co-workers in the 1930s. Particular points that are addressed include the regularity of the SiO 4 tetrahedral structural units, the SiOSi angle distribution, the interpretation of the first peak in the diffraction pattern and the extent of the longer range density fluctuations as revealed by X-ray and neutron measurements at small scattering vectors. The use of structural modelling in the interpretation of the diffraction data is discussed and representative models are compared with experiment. The extent of the (dis)agreement of each model with experiment is compared quantitatively and the paper concludes by identifying the most accurate structural model of vitreous silica known to the author at the present time.