Studies on the physics of glass

The general characteristic and the directions of studies and main results in the domain of physics of glass is given. The following problems are considered: 1) the possibility of finding defects in glass,theirproperties and role in different phenomena;2)the possibilities of finding elementary excitations in glass and their properties. The main technique is the comparatave investigation of glass and crystals of the same composition. Therefore, the mapority of investigations is carried out on crystals and glass of the simplest oxide, i.e. silicon dioxide and the simplest arsenic chalcogenides. The first of them is a material with insulator properties, the second possesses the semiconductor properties. The comparison of the behaviour of these materials during the transition from the crystal structur /e to the glass structure/ opens up new possibilities in the solution of the mentioned above problem