Diffusing-wave spectroscopy

Since its invention about a decade ago, dynamic multiple light scattering has found many applications in various areas of soft condensed matter science. It has become a particularly important quantitative tool in colloid physics because of its applicability to systems containing very high concentrations of scatterers, and its extreme sensitivity to small motions. Recent advances of this technique, currently called diffusing-wave spectroscopy because of the diffusive transport of the light waves, include remote optical measurements of frequency-dependent viscoelasticity, studies of the microscopic dynamical processes in flowing sand and aging foam, a theoretical description of dynamic scattering from orientational fluctuations in liquid crystals and imaging of dynamic heterogeneities buried inside a turbid background medium.