We have made amorphous germanium membranes of very high purity by self-ion implantation of crystalline germanium and analysed these samples by high energy x-ray diffraction. A five-element energy dispersive detector was used to distinguish elastic and inelastic scattered x-rays and thus obtain a reliable structure factor from 0.1 to 55.5 Å^-1. Two samples were measured: one "as-implanted" which received no further treatment and one "relaxed" which had been thermally annealed at 350 °C in order to induce structural relaxation. Comparing the RDFs of these two samples, and comparing those to RDFs measured earlier on similarly prepared a-Si samples [1], reveals the following new information, some expected and some surprising:

(1) The coordination number of a-Ge is slightly smaller than that of a-Si

(2) The 2^nd peak, measured at high resolution, reveals a fine structure which will require detailed modelling for a full understanding and may it possible to distinguish between the contribution of 2^nd and 3^rd neighbours to the 2^nd peak.

(3) Structural relaxation leads to ordering, measurable in the RDF, beyond 6 Å and thus much beyond the 2^nd nearest neighbour.

[1] K. Laaziri et al., Phys. Rev. B 60 (1999) 13520.