Ultrasonic microspectroscopy characterization of chemically tempered glass

We evaluated the elastic properties of the compressive stress (CS) layer of chemically tempered glass by ultrasonic microspectroscopy (UMS) in a very high frequency (VHF) range. Two commercial aluminosilicate glass specimens were prepared, and one of them was chemically tempered. Changes in elastic properties in the CS layer with the residual stress introduced by the exchange of Na+ ions for larger K+ ions were estimated by precisely measuring the densities and longitudinal and shear velocities for both the tempered and nontempered specimens. Using a single-layer model for the surface layer, we observed drastic increases in bulk-wave velocities and significant decreases in attenuation coefficients. We determined that the average elastic properties, namely, the elastic constants c₁₁ and c₄₄, and the density of the surface layer, were 9.6 and 7.1, and 1.2% larger than those of the nontempered specimen, respectively. We also estimated the distributions of the elastic properties according to the complementary error function (CEF) for the distribution of K⁺ ion concentration. Furthermore, using a line-focus-beam (LFB) system, we measured the frequency characteristics of the velocity (VLSAW) of leaky surface acoustic waves (LSAWs) on a water-loaded surface of the tempered specimen and clarified that the distributions of the elastic properties did not follow the CEF. The LFB system can be used for analyzing/determining details of the surface properties and is a promising tool for evaluating and characterizing chemically tempered glass and tempering process conditions.