Fictive temperature of fracture surface of a silica glass

Fictive temperatures of the fracture surface of a silica glass with high OH content were measured using FT-IR reflection method. The fracture surface exhibited a clearly higher fictive temperature than the original fictive temperature of the glass. The thickness of the fracture surface layer with higher fictive temperature was approximately 0.05 µm ± 0.02 µm and the highest fictive temperature of the fracture surface was estimated to be 70–80 °C above the glass transition temperature. The present results indicate that fracture of silica glass, considered to be one of the most brittle materials, is accompanied by inelastic deformation.