Undercooled Phase Behind the Glass Phase with Superheated Medium-Range Order above Glass Transition Temperature

International audienceRapidly quenched glass formers are amorphous and transformed into glass phases by relaxing enthalpy during the first heating. Two liquids give rise, at first, to an intermediate Phase 3 below T3 < Tg respecting the entropy constraints and then, the enthalpy increases towards that of the glass phase up to Tg. The negative activation energy shows that Phase 3 is hidden behind the glassy phase acting as an intermediate invasive phase during the second cooling. Phase 3 carries a medium-range order above Tg which can be superheated above the melting temperature up to Tn+. The two-liquid state model predicts the thermodynamic properties as well as the relaxation times from liquids 1 to 2. The configuron model is successfully applied to 54 glasses explaining the transitions by percolation and an 'ordered' fraction equal to the critical threshold c = 0.15 ± 0.01 from Tg to Tn+