Fabrication and nanoindentation analysis of nanocrystallized glasses in K₂O-Nb₂O₅-GeO₂ system

Abstract

Crystallization behaviors of xK₂O-xNb₂O₅-(100-2x) GeO₂ glasses and deformation behaviors of their crystallized glasses were examined. Good transparent nano-crystallized glasses were easily obtained in the sample with x=25, but crystallized glasses with x=20 and 30 were opaque. The second harmonic generation was not observed in the crystallized glasses, indicating that the crystalline phase is not a nonlinear optical KNbGeO₅ crystal. It was found that the universal hardness obtained by nanoindentation experiments increases due to the nanocrystallization.