Short-Range Disorder in TeO2 Melt and Glass

J Phys Chem Lett. 2020 Jan 16;11(2):427-431. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b03231. Epub 2019 Dec 30.

Abstract

High-resolution X-ray pair distribution functions for molten and glassy TeO2 reveal coordination numbers nTeO ≈ 4. However, distinct from the known α-, β-, and γ-TeO2 polymorphs, there is considerable short-range disorder such that no clear cutoff distance between bonded and nonbonded interactions exists. We suggest that this is similar to disorder in δ-TeO2 and arises from a broad distribution of asymmetric Te-O-Te bridges, something that we observe becomes increasingly asymmetric with increasing liquid temperature. Such behavior is qualitatively consistent with existing interpretations of Raman scattering spectra, and equivalent to temperature-induced coordination number reduction, for sufficiently large cutoff radii. Therefore, TeO2 contains a distribution of local environments that are, furthermore, temperature dependent, making it distinct from the canonical single-oxide glass formers. Our results are in good agreement with high-level ab initio cluster calculations.