Observation of long-range compositional fluctuations in glasses: Implications for atomic and electronic structure

Abstract: Experimental evidence for long-range compositional fluctuations in glasses is given. The implications for electronic structure and stoichiometry-induced structural variations are analyzed. These fluctuations were discovered by examining the spatial dependence of inner shell near-edge absorption spectra obtained using a 50nm diameter probe. This spectroscopy is sensitive to both angular and distance correlations in bonding. Comparisons with spectra from compositionally equivalent crystals, and multiple-scattering calculations which include core-hole effects are used to analyze the data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]