Evidence of polyamorphic transitions during densified SiO₂ glass annealing

In-situ X-ray scattering monitoring is carried out during temperature annealing on different densified SiO$_2$ glasses. Density fluctuations and intermediate range coherence from x-ray scattering (SAXS) and diffraction (WAXS) evidence a maximum in their evolution at the same relaxation time. These extrema confirm the existence of an intermediate transitory disordered state between the two more ordered high and low density amorphous states. We propose that the existence of this transitory state confirms the existence of two mega basin in the energy landscape and therefore an amorphous-amorphous transition. Including older Raman results, we show that this intermediate disorder state implies similar mechanisms at all length scales from a few angstroms to 5 nm.