{
  "abstract": "Cesium silicate glasses, (Cs2O)x(SiO2)1−x, are candidate hosts for optical, dielectric and nuclear-waste-immobilization applications, yet the large, polarizable Cs+ cation is poorly described by conventional potentials. We combine a firstprinciples reference with a single, composition-transferable machine-learned force field for the full range x = 0–0.30, built by pooling the ab initio data of all compositions with no empirical parametrization. First-principles calculations show wide-gap insulators whose gap narrows from 5.9 to 3.3 eV, while the static dielectric constant nearly doubles and the refractive index and optical basicity rise, in agreement with experiment. The pooled potential then scales these cells to nanometre-sized glasses, reproducing the density (within ∼2%, and 5% at x = 0.20), the intact SiO4 network, and the bridging-to-non-bridging-oxygen conversion and Qn depolymerization. Its elastic constants agree with Brillouinscattering experiments, and its pair-correlation functions and structure factors match the ab initio reference. A single structural variable, the non-bridging oxygen, governs these trends quantitatively: the moduli decay exponentially to a stiffness floor with a common non-bridging-oxygen scale and the gap narrows linearly with it, making it a quantitative descriptor linking structure to the elastic, electronic and photonic properties and a transferable basis for designing heavy-alkali silicate glasses.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Technology Innovation Institute",
    "CEMHTI",
    "CNRS UPR 3079, Université d’Orléans",
    "Tyndall National Institute",
    "University College Cork"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Hicham Jabraoui"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Yann Vaills"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Michael Nolan"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ecd87sp9e008y.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.26434/chemrxiv.15008554/v1",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "ecd87sp9e008y",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15008554/v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2503|Glass properties and applications"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7212017104",
  "pdf_url": "https://chemrxiv.org/doi/pdf/10.26434/chemrxiv.15008554/v1",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-09",
  "publisher": "American Chemical Society (ACS)",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ecd87sp9e008y.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:19Z",
      "native_id": "10.26434/chemrxiv.15008554",
      "source": "chemrxiv",
      "url": "https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15008554/v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "chemistry",
      "origin": "openalex:2503|Glass properties and applications",
      "subfield": "materials-polymers"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Non-bridging oxygen as the master variable linking structure to the elastic, electronic, and photonic properties of heavy, polarizable cesium silicate glasses",
  "title_text": "Non-bridging oxygen as the master variable linking structure to the elastic, electronic, and photonic properties of heavy, polarizable cesium silicate glasses",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:19Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ecd87sp9e008y",
  "venue": "ChemRxiv",
  "versions": []
}