Structure of densified germanium dioxide

Classical molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the structure of densified germanium dioxide ($GeO_2$). It is found that the coordination number of germanium changes with increasing density (pressure) while pressure released systems do not exhibit a marked change in local structure as compared to the virgin system. The structural modification with pressure appears to be stepwise and gradually affects long range (through the reduction of the long-range correlations as seen from the shift of the first sharp diffraction peak), intermediate range (by angular reduction) and finally short range structure (by tetrahedron distorsion)