Pressure-induced densification of vitreous silica: insight from elastic properties
Abstract
In situ high-pressure Brillouin light scattering experiments along loading-unloading paths are used to investigate the compressibility of vitreous silica. An accurate equation of state is obtained below 9GPa using sound velocities corrected for dispersion. Conversely, huge inelastic effects are observed in the range 1060GPa, unveiling the reversible transformation from the fourfold-coordinated structure to the sixfold one. We find that the associated density changes fully correlate with the average Si coordination number. Decompression curves from above 20GPa reveal abrupt backward coordination changes around 1015GPa and significant hysteresis. Further, contrary to common wisdom, the residual densification of recovered silica samples can be figured out from the pressure cycles.
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