X-ray absorption spectroscopy of strongly disordered glasses: Local structure around Ag ions in g- Ag2 O•n B2 O3

The local structure around Ag ions in silver borate glasses g- Ag2 O•n B2 O3 (n=2,4) was studied by x-ray absorption spectroscopy at the Ag K edge for temperatures from 77 to 450 K. Extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) analysis based on cumulant expansion or multishell Gaussian model fails for these systems. Therefore, the radial distribution functions (RDFs) around Ag ions were reconstructed using a method based on the direct inversion of the EXAFS expression. The RDFs consist of about eight atoms (oxygens and borons), exhibit a relatively weak temperature dependence, and indicate the presence of strong static disorder. Two main components can be identified in RDFs, located at about 2.3-2.4 and 2.5-3.4, respectively. The chemical types of atoms contributing to the RDF were determined via a simulation of configurationally averaged x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and EXAFS signals. The immediate neighborhood of Ag contains mostly oxygens while borons dominate at larger distances. The combination of EXAFS and XANES techniques allowed us to determine a more complete structural model than would be possible by relying solely on either EXAFS or XANES alone.