Electron diffraction study on chemical short-range order in covalent amorphous solids

Studies on radiation-induced structural changes of solids are of technological importance for realizing desirable material properties and for predicting the fate of materials under radiation environments. It is known that energetic particles, such as electrons, neutrons, and ions, produce extensive damage, and may eventually lead to amorphization. Amorphization is often accompanied with significant volume changes and concomitant microcracking. To clarify the amorphization mechanism, knowledge of amorphous structures is required. Radial distribution function analysis is one of the useful ways to characterize topological and chemical disorder in amorphous networks. Here, we review the advantage of electron diffraction for analyzing short-range order of amorphous materials and show some examples of radial distribution functions obtained by our group.