Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) under non-equilibrium conditions

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Abstract
The use of small angle neutron scattering (SANS) for the study of systems under non-equilibrium conditions is illustrated by three types of experiments in the field of polymer research : — the relaxation of a system from an initial non-equilibrium state towards equilibrium, — the cyclic or repetitive installation of a series of non-equilibrium states in a system, — the steady non-equilibrium state maintained by a constant dissipation of energy within the system. Characteristic times obtained in these experiments with SANS are compared with the times obtained from quasielastic neutron and light scattering, which yield information about the equilibrium dynamics of the system. The limits of SANS applied to non-equilibrium systems for the measurement of relaxation times at different length scales are shown and compared to the limits of quasielastic neutron and light scattering