A study of changes in nano-scale morphology of thin films of nano-crystalline transition metal (TM) elemental oxides, HfO(2) and TiO(2), on plasma-nitrided Ge(100) substrates, and Si(100) substrates with ultrathin (similar to 0.8 nm) plasma-nitrided Si suboxide, SiO(x), x<2. or SiON interfacial layers is presented. Near edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (NEXAS) has been used to determine nano-scale morphology of these films by Jahn-Teller distortion removal of band-edge d-state degeneracies. These results identify a new and novel application for NEXAS based on the resonant character of the respective O K(1) and N K(1) edge absorptions. Their X-ray energy difference of >150 eV is critical for this approach. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.