PHASE-SEPARATION IN GLASSES

The detection, acceptance and further investigation of glass-glass phase separation was closely connected with the development of methods making detection possible, such as electron microscope technique pioneered and exploited by Werner Vogel, to whom this paper is dedicated on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Structures are not always found in agreement with rules derived from thermodynamic principles, and also depend on thermal history, as well as mode of preparation. The phenomenon is exemplified in many glass-forming systems. Among more recent applications are the control of crystallization by preceding phase separation as in glass-ceramics and semiconductor-doped glasses for non-linear optics.