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Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Novel Techniques for Observing Structural Dynamics of Photoresponsive Liquid Crystals
Published on: May 29, 2018
Application of structural phase transitions in x-ray spectroscopy
1Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Aussenstelle Berlin, Rudower Chaussee 5, D-12489 Berlin, Germany.
Abstract:
A method is proposed for measuring different energy ranges of x-ray radiation with the same spectrometer crystal employing structural phase transitions. When the crystal temperature is varied beyond the phase transition temperature, the crystal symmetry is altered predictably and reversibly. Thus, with no change in the angle of glancing incidence, the x-ray beam hits in different crystal phases different lattice planes which correspond to different energy ranges. The advantage is that neither large motions nor exchanging the spectrometer crystal is necessary during observations.
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