Structure and Bonding in Noncrystalline Solids

Noncrystalline (NC) solids, as is well known, lack the long­ range order of crystals. Accordingly, they exhibit scattering, e.g., x-ray, electron, and neutron, but not the diffraction patterns characteristic of crystals. The intensity distributions from NC solids are usually transformed into radial distribution functions (RDF), but the interpretation of the RDF's is not unique. The lack of long-range order, and the non-uniqueness of the structural interpretation, have constituted the main o...