Glass is a brittle material. Is there any way to make it a bit “tougher”?
In fracture mechanics and materials science, the fracture toughness (Plane-Strain Fracture Toughness, K_{IC}) of fused silica (\text{SiO}_2) is very low, with intrinsic values typically around K_{IC} \approx 0.75\ \text{MPa}\cdot\text{m}^{1/2}.
Due to the lack of a lattice dislocation slip mechanism in the network structure of amorphous silica, which is present in crystalline materials, it cannot dissipate energy at the crack tip through plastic deformation. Therefore, directly altering the intrinsic brittleness of fused silica at the pure material chemistry level is extremely difficult. However, in the fields of optical engineering and fiber optics mechanics, the following physical and engineering approaches are commonly employed to enhance the