The relationship between order at intermediate length scales and discernible features in the diffraction pattern of glassy and liquid materials is demonstrated experimentally by means of a direct comparison of the static structure factors of a material in its liquid, stable crystal, rotator-phase crystal, orientational glass, and amorphous phases. In addition, the relevance of orientationally disordered crystalline phases (i.e., either the dynamic disorder of a rotator-phase crystal or the quenched disorder of an orientational glass), as intermediate stages between the stable crystal and the topologically disordered (i.e., amorphous) solid, is evidenced. The material studied is ethyl alcohol.

• Received 9 April 1996

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.3823