Apparatus for simultaneous DLS-SANS investigations of dynamics and structure in soft matter

TL;DR

This paper introduces a portable apparatus enabling simultaneous DLS and SANS measurements on the same soft matter sample, improving the accuracy of correlating dynamics and structure in sensitive materials.

Contribution

A novel portable DLS-SANS device allowing concurrent measurements of dynamics and structure on the same sample, reducing variability and improving data correlation.

Findings

Successful construction and commissioning of the apparatus

Simultaneous measurements on soft matter samples

Enhanced understanding of structure-dynamics relationships

Abstract

Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) are two key tools with which to probe the dynamic and static structure factor, respectively, in soft matter. Usually DLS and SANS measurements are performed separately, in different laboratories, on different samples and at different times. However, this methodology has particular disadvantages for a large variety of soft materials which exhibit high sensitivity to small changes in fundamental parameters such as waiting times, concentration, pH, ionic strength, etc. Here we report on a new portable DLS-SANS apparatus that allows one to simultaneously measure both the microscopic dynamics (through DLS) and the static structure (through SANS) on the same sample. The apparatus has been constructed as a collaboration between two laboratories, each an expert in one of the scattering methods, and was commissioned on the \textit{LOQ} and \textit{ZOOM} SANS instruments at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron \& Muon Source, U.K.