STRUCTURE OF SIMPLE INORGANIC AMORPHOUS SOLIDS

Presents an account of recent studies on the structure of amorphous semiconductors, oxide and chalcogenide glasses and amorphous metals. Emphasis is placed on simple solids which are representative of each class of amorphous material and also on so-called direct structural techniques-for example, X-ray and neutron scattering EXAFS and electron microscopy. For most glasses the arrangement of near-neighbours is similar to that found in at least one crystalline form of the material. Local structure in the so-called transition metal-metalloid glasses can be described in similar terms or by models with random atomic packing and the arguments for an against each hypothesis are presented. Definition of the medium range (8-15 AA) structure is necessarily more vague.