A high-resolution small-angle light scattering instrument for soft matter studies

A small-angle light scattering (SALS) instrument with a high resolution at low angles and a high signal-to-noise ratio has been developed. Both a wide dynamic range and a wide scattering vector range are achieved using a two-dimensional array of complementary metal oxide semiconductor image sensors. These instrument characteristics have enabled us to obtain high-quality light scattering data from soft matter systems. This setup is especially well suited to studies of systems with a weak scattering power and/or a time-dependent structure evolution in a wide spatial range from submicrometre to submillimetre. An application of this instrument to a polyelectrolyte blend and an extremely thin blend film are reported.