Fused Silica vs. Optical Silicon
Fused silica belongs to the glass and glass-ceramics classification, while optical silicon belongs to the non-glass optical ceramics. There are 22 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (5, in this case) are not shown.
For each property being compared, the top bar is fused silica and the bottom bar is optical silicon.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa | 1100 | |
| 120 |
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 73 | |
| 150 |
| Flexural Strength, MPa | 67 | |
| 300 |
| Knoop Hardness | 570 | |
| 1130 |
| Poisson's Ratio | 0.17 | |
| 0.28 |
| Shear Modulus, GPa | 31 | |
| 80 |
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 50 | |
| 110 |
Thermal Properties
| Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C | 1080 | |
| 1350 |
| Melting Onset (Solidus), °C | 1900 | |
| 1560 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 720 | |
| 700 |
| Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K | 1.4 | |
| 150 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 0.5 | |
| 3.0 |
Electrical Properties
| Dielectric Constant (Relative Permittivity) At 1 MHz | 3.8 | |
| 12 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Density, g/cm3 | 2.2 | |
| 2.3 |
| Light Transmission Range, µm | 0.16 to 3.5 | |
| 1.2 to 15 |
| Refractive Index | 1.5 | |
| 3.5 |
Common Calculations
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 18 | |
| 35 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 63 | |
| 75 |
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 6.3 | |
| 13 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 14 | |
| 22 |
| Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s | 0.85 | |
| 93 |
| Thermal Shock Resistance, points | 97 | |
| 18 |