Date Time ‘Seeing’ previously unseen nano-level glass damage With hyperspectral near-field optical mapping, an infrared light beam can reveal nano-level imperfections and damage that weakens the glass sample Image: Elizabeth Flores-Gomez Murray, Penn State MRI For the first time, the subsurface structural changes of silica glass due to nanoscale wear and damage has been revealed via spectroscopy, which may lead to improvements in glass products such as electronic displays and vehicle windshields, according to a team of international researchers. “One of the main research areas in my group is glass surface science, chiefly the relationship between property, the structure of the glass, and mechanical and chemical properties, especially mechanical durability and chemical durability,” Seong Kim, Penn State distinguished professor of chemical engineering and co-lead author of the study in Acta Materialia, said. “And one of the techniques that we we’ve been usingis vibrational spectroscopy. But the challenge of the nanoscale structural analysis of a glass surface is that many of the spectroscopy techniques that people use widely do not work here.”