Atomic-scale structure of GeSe2 glass revisited: a continuous or broken network of Ge-(Se1/2)4 tetrahedra?

The atomic-scale structure of germanium diselenide (GeSe2) glass has been revisited using a combination of high-energy x-ray diffraction and constrained reverse Monte Carlo simulations. The study shows that the glass structure may be very well described in terms of a continuous network of corner- and edge-sharing Ge-Se4 tetrahedra. The result is in contrast to other recent studies asserting that the chemical order and, hence, network integrity in GeSe2 glass are intrinsically broken. It is suggested that more elaborate studies are necessary to resolve the controversy.