Petukhov A V, Dolbnya I P, Aarts D G A L, Vroege G J
Van 't Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Debye Institute, University of Utrecht, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2004 Mar;69(3 Pt 1):031405. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.69.031405. Epub 2004 Mar 23.
High-resolution synchrotron small-angle x-ray diffraction is applied to characterize the structure and long-range order in a sedimentary hard-sphere colloidal crystal before and during its drying. The principles of the technique and the influence of the coherence properties of the x-ray beam are discussed in detail. The capillary forces generated during the drying process are shown to destroy the long-range order and to break the crystal into smaller crystallites with slightly different orientations. The diffraction is shown to switch from the dynamic regime in the long-range-ordered crystal to nearly kinematic diffraction in the mosaic (short-range-ordered) crystal.
