Résumé
Nowdays there is an increasing need to control the properties of glasses and the ones of their surfaces, in particular. A considerable number of experimental and computational studies have been conducted in order to better describe the surface features of silicate glasses. Nevertheless there is still a lack of a deeper insight on how the surface topography and the structural environments depend on glass composition and/or production history. etc.Using molecular dynamics simulations, we have investigated the surface properties of alkali silicate glasses. We have studied two types of surfaces, a melt-formed surface and a fracture surface and the influence of the alkali modifier has been rationalized in terms of the interplay between multiple factors involving the size of the ions, bond strength, and charge balance on the surface. Specifically, we have also studied the effects of the glass composition and alkali modifier on the topographical properties of the two types of surfaces