Observation of heterodyne mixing in surface x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy experiments

Phys Rev Lett. 2003 Aug 15;91(7):076104. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.076104. Epub 2003 Aug 15.

Abstract

We report measurements of propagating capillary waves on a liquid water surface at T=5 degrees C with x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy. The experiment has been performed under grazing incidence conditions with an incoming x-ray beam below the critical angle of total external reflection. In the q region investigated the measured intensity-intensity autocorrelation functions of the liquid water surface were found to be heterodyne signals, i.e., a combination of first- and second-order correlation functions g(1)(tau) and g(2)(tau).