Amorphous atomic configuration

Extended x-ray absorption fine stmcture measurements (EXAFS) have been performed to iavestigate the short-range stmcture of TbFe films (46). It is observed that there is an excess number of Fe—Fe and Tb—Tb pairs ia the plane of the amorphous film and an excess number of Tb—Fe pairs perpendicular to film. The iacrease of K with the substrate temperature for samples prepared by evaporation is explained by a rearrangement of local absorbed atom configurations duting the growth of the film (surface-iaduced textuting) (47). 

In a porous matrix, the Si-Si bond strength will depend on the atomic configuration. A survey of silicon dangling bond energy in amorphous silicon [6] shows a range from 58 to 130 kJ/mol. 

A structure model must be based on a noncontradictory, closed and complete definition. A definition is closed if it does not contain indefinite elements and notions, and it is complete if it includes the description of all structure elements. Thus, for instance, the model in which the amorphous structure is considered as a dislocationally disordered crystal [6.21, 22] becomes not closed if the dislocation structure (in particular, the one of dislocation core) is not defined. At high density of dislocations when their cores may overlap and their structure becomes very indefinite, the model is not closed. The free-volume model [6.23 25], in which the question about geometry and topology of atomic configurations is put aside, is not complete. 

FIGURE 42 Computed electronic density of states of amorphous carbon containing fivefold, sixfold, or sevenfold structure. The averages are calculated over 10 atomic configurations. The arrows indicate the positions of the experimental peaks [1211. 

The same principles that are valid for the surface of crystalline substances hold for the surface of amorphous solids. Crystals can be of the purely ionic type, e.g., NaF, or of the purely covalent type, e.g., diamond. Most substances, however, are somewhere in between these extremes [even in lithium fluoride, a slight tendency towards bond formation between cations and anions has been shown by precise determinations of the electron density distribution (/)]. Mostly, amorphous solids are found with predominantly covalent bonds. As with liquids, there is usually some close-range ordering of the atoms similar to the ordering in the corresponding crystalline structures. Obviously, this is caused by the tendency of the atoms to retain their normal electron configuration, such as the sp hybridization of silicon in silica. Here, too, transitions from crystalline to amorphous do occur. The microcrystalline forms of carbon which are structurally descended from graphite are an example. 

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