Roughness and Scaling Properties of Oxide Glass Surfaces at the Nanoscale

Abstract

Using atomistic computer simulations we determine the roughness and topographical features of melt-formed (MS) and fracture surfaces (FS) of oxide glasses. We find that the topography of the MS is described well by the frozen capillary wave theory. The FS are significant rougher than the MS and depend strongly on glass composition. The height-height correlation function for the FS shows an unexpected logarithmic dependence on distance, in contrast to the power law found in experiments. We unravel the crucial role of spatial resolution on surface measurements and conclude that on length scales less than 10 nm FS are not self-affine fractals.