“…Shortly after the work of Stookey, Tashiro and Wada (1963) found that ZrO2 is an effective nucleation agent, and transparent β-quartz s.s. glass-ceramics in Li2O-Al2O3-SiO2 system can be easily obtained by the addition of ZrO2 and TiO2 (Petzoldt, 1963;Beall, 1967;Müller, 1972;Tashiro et al, 1976). By improving the transparency and other characteristics by optimization of the composition and the conditions of the heat treatment for crystallization through many basic studies on nucleation and crystal growth (Nakagawa, 1972;Riello and Hopfe, 2001;Dymshits, 2005), the application of the transparent glassceramics has become widespread, such as in electronic and optical devices, production equipment, and home and cooking appliances.…”