Healing of Lithographically Introduced Flaws in Glass and Glass Containing Ceramics

The morphological evolution of cylindrical pores or channels'' and crack-like cavities in glass and glass-containing ceramics at elevated temperatures was studied. The systems studied were: Coming 7056 alkali borosilicate glass, soda-lime glass (microscope slides), a commercially available 96% Al[sub 2]O[sub 3]with [approx]5--10% intergranular glass, 96% Al[sub 2]O[sub 3] bonded to sapphire, and a model sapphire/glass/sapphire system fabricated by diffusion bonding etched and unetched pieces of sapphire onto which 30--50 nm of SiO[sub 2] had been sputter deposited. These systems span a broad range of glass contents, and permit observation of healing behavior with varying glass content. The results were compared with analytical models and results of similar studies in completely crystalline systems