Depth-resolved Raman Spectroscopy and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy to Evaluate the Structural and Chemical Properties of Chemically Strenghtened Glasses

Abstract: In this thesis, the structural and chemical properties of a series of titanosilicate glasseswere investigated. The glasses were subjected to a chemical strengthening process(with K^+ replacing Na^+) at four different treatment temperatures and studied withXPS- and Raman spectroscopy. From the XPS analysis, the interdiffusion coefficientsand activation energies were calculated to be between 3.9'10^-12–4.3'10^-11 cm^2/sand 101.1-103.6 kJ/mol respectively. An increase in the TiO2 content lead to adecrease in the interdiffusion coefficients and consequently to an increase in theactivation energies. From the Raman analysis, the presence of compressive stressescould be observed as well as an indication of viscous relaxation from the Raman shifts.An attempt to model the compressive stresses as a function of depth was alsoperformed using a modified version of a stress evaluation method proposed byTerakado, Nobuaki, et al. "A novel method for stress evaluation in chemicallystrengthened glass based on micro-Raman spectroscopy." Communications Physics3.1 (2020): 1-7. The calculated values of the compressive stresses were found to bereasonable for the measurements that followed the requirements of the method, butas this modified version is based on assumptions, no direct conclusions could bedrawn regarding its validity.