Coordination of transition‐metals in glasses from high‐resolution electron energy‐loss spectroscopy

Two fresnoitic glasses (2BaO–TiO 2 –2GeO 2 and 2SrO–TiO 2 –2SiO 2 ) are studied by high‐resolution electron energy‐loss spectroscopy in the transmission electron microscope. It is shown that coordination fingerprinting using the electron energy‐loss near‐edge structure (being widely used in crystalline compounds bearing transition metals) can also be applied to amorphous matter. In particular, respective ratios of fourfold, fivefold, and sixfold co‐ordinated Ti 4+ are verified for both glasses in comparison to earlier X‐ray photoemission measurements. The results demonstrate that – sufficiently high spectral resolution given – electron energy‐loss spectroscopy in the transmission electron microscope is an extremely promising and powerful technique for atomistic‐structure studies of amorphous materials. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)