A new discovery by researchers at the University of California, San Diego could revolutionize the way we think about silica glass. Using advanced atomic-level imaging techniques, they have revealed a previously unknown regularity in the structure of silica glass, which could unlock new applications in fields such as optoelectronics, telecommunications, and nanoscale engineering. The team found that the glass is composed of an ordered array of fused silica nanospheres, which form a three-dimensional network of interconnected cages. This regular structure could potentially be used to develop better optical devices, build more efficient electronics, and create more precise nanomachines.

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source: Phys.org