Home-based time-resolved photo small angle X-ray diffraction and its applications

Abstract

Abstract An experimental outline will be given for home-based time-resolved photo small angle X-ray diffraction apparatus. Depending on the time-resolution of the optical laser excitation source, the readout time of the detector and their relative time jitter, time resolutions down to some hundred microseconds might be achieved. Even though the X-ray flux might be low, as expected for sealed tube kind of sources, experiments with a sufficient signal/noise ratio can be performed by applying a stroboscopic mode. The method of photo small angle X-ray scattering will be applied to photo-sensitized liquid crystal systems demonstrating the possibility of photo-inducing a phase transition between a liquid crystal and a microemulsion phase in this type of material.