Structure of MgSiO glass made by a method for containerless supercooled-liquid-phase processing at high temperatures

Kohara, Shinji*; Suzuya, Kentaro; Takeuchi, Ken*

We succeeded in producing highly pure glass made of "forsterite," contained in upper mantle of the Earth and meteorites. Although ordinary glass is made of silica network structure, this glass has an unsymmetrical network structure of magnesium oxide polyhedrons, which is deemed to destroy the silica network structure. We produced glass with extremely rare impurities by melting forsterite while floating it with inert gas and sound waves and then quenching it while holding it in an approximate microgravity condition equivalent to space. Development of a new optical fiber and improvement and cost reduction of operating equipment, such as operation laser, because high-purity glass can be produced using materials, which has been deemed to be appropriate.