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Despite its simple chemical constitution and unparalleled technological importance, the phase-change material germanium telluride (GeTe) still poses fundamental questions. In particular, the bonding mechanisms in amorphous GeTe have remained elusive to date, owing to the lack of suitable bond-analysis tools. Herein, we introduce a bonding indicator for amorphous structures, dubbed 'bond-weighted distribution function' (BWDF), and we apply this method to amorphous GeTe. The results underline a peculiar role of homopolar GeGe bonds, which locally stabilize tetrahedral fragments but not the global network. This atom-resolved (i.e., chemical) perspective has implications for the stability of amorphous 'zero bits' and thus for the technologically relevant resistance-drift phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A glimpse into amorphous materials. In their Communication on page 10817 ff. R. Mazzarello, R. Dronskowski et al. investigate the bonding nature of amorphous GeTe, a prototypical phase‐change data‐storage material. Starting from a molecular‐dynamics snapshot, the role of different structural motifs is elucidated by the use of new tools; this way, the chemical “language” of bonding and coordination polyhedra may be transferred to the amorphous state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]