New Method to Measure Structural Disorder: Application to GeO2Glass

Abstract

A new method is presented for measuring thermal or structural disorder. The additional disorder in the first Ge-O and Ge-Ge distances in amorphous Ge${\mathrm{O}}_2$ was measured by comparison with crystalline ($\alpha$-quartz) Ge${\mathrm{O}}_2$, and showed no additional disorder in the Ge-O distances but deviations in the Ge-Ge distance consistent with a ±6.5° variation about a Ge-O-Ge bond angle of 130°. These results rule out the proposed microcrystalline models.