Elastic moduli of XAlSiO4 aluminosilicate glasses: effects of charge-balancing cations

• Charge balanced aluminosilicate glasses XAlSiO4 containing alkali, alkaline-earth or transition metal cations were studied
• Density, glass transition temperature, elastic moduli, Poisson's ratio and refractive index were measured
• Elastic moduli and atomic density both increase with cation field strength

Brillouin spectroscopy is used to investigate the elastic properties of XAlSiO4 aluminosilicate glasses where X = Li, Na, K, Mg0.5, Ca0.5, Sr0.5, Ba0.5, and Zn0.5. The Brillouin frequency shifts obtained in two different scattering geometries allow the calculation of the refractive index, the two sound velocities and Poisson's ratio. Measurements of the mass density give in turn the elastic moduli and the Debye temperature. We find that the elastic properties scale with the atomic density of the glassy network or the charge-balancing cation field strength while they negatively correlate with the glass transition temperature. Further, Poisson's ratio depends on the nature of the non-framework cations in this glass series.