We describe a multispeckle dynamic light scattering technique capable of resolving the motion of scattering sites in cases that this motion changes systematically with time. The method is based on the visibility of the speckle pattern formed by the scattered light as detected by a single exposure of a digital camera. Whereas previous multispeckle methods rely on correlations between images, here the connection with scattering site dynamics is made more simply in terms of the variance of intensity among the pixels of the camerafor the specified exposure duration. The essence is that the speckle pattern is more visible, i.e., the variance of detected intensity levels is greater, when the dynamics of the scattering site motion is slow compared to the exposure time of the camera. The theory for analyzing the moments of the spatial intensity distribution in terms of the electric-field autocorrelation is presented. It is tested for two well-understood samples, a colloidal suspension of Brownian particles and a coarsening foam, where the dynamics can be treated as stationary and hence can be benchmarked by traditional methods. However, our speckle-visibility method is particularly appropriate for samples in which the dynamics vary with time, either slowly or rapidly, limited only by the exposure time fidelity of the camera. Potential applications range from soft-glassy materials, to granular avalanches, to flowmetry of living tissue. We describe a multispeckle dynamic light scattering technique capable of resolving the motion of scattering sites in cases that this motion changes systematically with time. The method is based on the visibility of the speckle pattern formed by the scattered light as detected by a single exposure of a digital camera. Whereas previous multispeckle methods rely on correlations between images, here the connection with scattering site dynamics is made more simply in terms of the variance of intensity among the pixels of the camera for the specified exposure duration. The essence is that the speckle pattern is more visible, i.e., the variance of detected intensity levels is greater, when the dynamics of the scattering site motion is slow compared to the exposure time of the camera. The theory for analyzing the moments of the spatial intensity distribution in terms of the electric-field autocorrelation is presented. It is tested for two well-understood samples, a colloidal suspension of Brownian particles and a coarsening foam, where the dynamics can be treated as stationary and hence can be benchmarked by traditional methods. However, our speckle-visibility method is particularly appropriate for samples in which the dynamics vary with time, either slowly or rapidly, limited only by the exposure time fidelity of the camera. Potential applications range from soft-glassy materials, to granular avalanches, to flowmetry of living tissue.

Multispeckle x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy was employed to characterize the slow dynamics of a suspension of highly charged, nanometer-sized disks. At wave vectors q corresponding to interparticle length scales, the dynamic structure factor follows a form f(q,t) approximately exp([-(t/tau)(beta)], where beta approximately 1.5. The relaxation time tau increases with the sample age t(a) approximately as tau approximately t(1.8)(a) and decreases with q as tau approximately q(-1). Such behavior is consistent with models that describe the dynamics in disordered elastic media in terms of strain from random, local structural rearrangements. The measured amplitude of f(q,t) varies with q in a manner that implies caged particle motion. The decrease in the range of this motion and an increase in suspension conductivity with increasing t(a) indicate a growth in interparticle repulsion as the mechanism for internal stress development implied by these models.

Three drugs, Ibuprofen, Aspirin and Erythromycin, are encapsulated in spherical Pluronic F127 micelles. The shapes and the size distributions of the micelles in dilute, aqueous solutions, with and without drugs, are ascertained using cryo-Scanning Electron Microscopy and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) experiments, respectively. Uptake of drugs above a threshold concentration is seen to reduce the critical micellization temperature of the solution. The mean hydrodynamic radii and polydispersities of the micelles are found to increase with decrease in temperature and in the presence of drug molecules. The hydration of the micellar core at lower temperatures is verified using fluorescence measurements. Increasing solution pH leads to the ionization of the drugs incorporated in the micellar cores. This causes rupture of the micelles and release of the drugs into the solution at the highest solution pH value of 11.36 investigated here and is studied using DLS and fluorescence spectrocopy.

The nonlinear flow behaviour of a viscoelastic gel formed due to entangled, cylindrical micelles in aqueous solutions of the surfactant CTAT has been studied. On subjecting the system to a step shear rate lying above a certain value, the shear and normal stresses show interesting time dependent behaviour. The analysis of the measured time series shows the existence of a finite correlation dimension and a positive Lyapunov exponent, unambiguously implying that the dynamics can be described by that of a dynamical system with a strange attractor whose dimension increases with the increase in shear rate.PACS numbers: 83.50. By, 83.50.Gd, 83.50.Ws, 82.70.Gg. Systems of giant wormlike micelles formed in certain surfactant solutions are known to show very unusual nonlinear rheology. In steady shear, the shear stress σ saturates to a constant value while the first normal stress difference increases roughly linearly with shear ratė γ 1,2 . The constitutive model of viscoelastic behaviour of wormlike micellar systems which incorporates reptation and reaction dynamics (breakage and recombination of micelles), predicts a mechanical instability of the shear banding type 3 where bands supporting high shear rates (low viscosity) coexist with regions of lower shear rates (higher viscosity). Flow birefringence 4 and nuclear magnetic resonance velocity imaging 5 have revealed the existence of banded flow in the shear stress plateau. An alternative explanation for the non-monotonicity of the flow curve has also been proposed 6,7 in terms of the coexistence of two thermodynamically stable phases -isotropic and nematic, present in the sheared solution. Berret 6 observed damped, periodic oscillations in the stress relaxation of CPyCl-NaSal solution at a surfactant volume fraction φ of 12% on the application of controlled shear ratesγ. Grand et al 8 have shown the existence of a metastable branch in the flow curve of dilute CPyClNaSal solution supporting stresses higher than that observed in the stress plateau. They have explained their results in terms of shear banding. Previous observations of shear stress fluctuations in CTAB-NaSal solutions have been explained in terms of shear thickening induced by the growth and retraction of shear induced structures 9 .The rheology of CTAT (cetyl trimethylammonium tosilate) has been examined extensively in the linear viscoelastic regime 10 . Above the Kraft temperature of 23 • C and at low concentrations (C < 0.04 wt.%), spherical micellar solutions are formed which exhibit Newtonian flow behaviour. At higher surfactant concentrations (0.04 < C < 0.9 wt.%), cylindrical wormlike micelles are formed which get entangled at C > 0.9 wt.% to form clear viscoelastic gels 10 . The purpose of this Letter is to report interesting time-dependence of the shear and normal stresses after subjecting the system to a step shear rate lying in the plateau region. Our detailed analysis shows unambiguously that the observed dynamics can be described as that of a low dimensional, dynamical system with a strange a...

Optical limiting behaviour of suspensions of single-walled carbon nanotubes in water, ethanol and ethylene glycol is reported. Experiments with 532 nm, 15 nsec duration laser pulses show that optical limiting occurs mainly due to nonlinear scattering. The observed host liquid dependence of optical limiting in different suspensions suggests that the scattering originates from microbubbles formed due to absorption-induced heating.

We report x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy and diffusing wave spectroscopy studies of depletion gels formed from nanoscale silica colloids in solutions of nonabsorbing polymer following the cessation of shear. The two techniques provide a quantitatively coherent picture of the dynamics as ballistic or convective motion of colloidal clusters whose internal motion is arrested. While the dynamics possesses features characteristic of nonergodic soft solids, including a relaxation time that grows linearly with the time since shear, comparison with behavior of quenched supercooled liquids indicates that this evolution is not directly related to traditional aging phenomena in glasses.

We report the observation of dynamical behaviour in dilute, aqueous solutions of a surfactant CTAT (cetyl trimethylammonium p-toluenesulphonate), below the overlap concentration c ⋆ . At these concentrations, CTAT forms cylindrical micelles and shows a pronounced shear thickening transition above a concentration-dependent critical shear rateγc. An analysis of the time-series of the stress relaxations at controlled shear rates in the shear-thickening regime shows the existence of correlation dimensions greater than two and positive Lyapunov exponents. This indicates the existence of deterministic chaos in the dynamics of stress relaxation at these concentrations and shear rates. The observed chaotic behaviour may be attributed to the stick-slip between the shear -induced structure (SIS) formed in the sheared surfactant solution and the coexisting dilute phase. At still higher shear rates, when the SIS spans the Couette, there is a transition to higher-dimensional dynamics arising out of the breakage and recombination of the SIS.Typeset using EURO-T E X

The primary and secondary relaxation timescales of aging colloidal suspensions of Laponite are estimated from intensity autocorrelation functions obtained in dynamic light scattering (DLS) experiments. The dynamical slowing down of these relaxation processes are compared with observations in fragile supercooled liquids by establishing a one-to-one mapping between the waiting time since filtration of a Laponite suspension and the inverse of the temperature of a supercooled liquid that is rapidly quenched towards its glass transition temperature. New timescales associated with primary and secondary relaxation processes, such as the characteristic timescale associated with the slowdown of the secondary relaxation process and the glass transition time, are extracted to describe the phenomenon of dynamical arrest in Laponite suspensions. In results that are strongly reminiscent of those extracted from supercooled liquids approaching their glass transitions, it is demonstrated that a strong coupling exists between the primary and secondary relaxation processes of aging Laponite suspensions in the cage-forming regime. Furthermore, the experimental data presented here clearly demonstrate the self-similar nature of the aging dynamics of Laponite suspensions within a range of sample concentrations.