Micron-gap rheo-optics with parallel plates. Dhinojwala, Ali; Granick, Steve. Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA. J. Chem. Phys. (1997), 107(20), 8664-8667. CODEN: JCPSA6 ISSN: 0021-9606. Journal written in English. CAN 128:81924 AN 1997:715196 CAPLUS

Solid planar plates with area up to several square centimeters can be made parallel at controllable sepns. from .apprx.0.1 (if airborne dust is eliminated) to >500 mm. Apart from dust and surface roughness, which set the lower bound of plate-plate sepn., there is no other fundamental constraint on the type of surface (metallic or dielec.; opaque or translucent) that can be studied. When conducting plates are employed, it is possible to apply an elec. field in the direction normal to the plates and observe the competition between shear fields and elec. fields in orthogonal directions. The large surface area should afford sufficient quantity of sample to make possible various spectroscopic and scattering expts. (esp. IR and dielec. spectroscopy in the direction normal to the plates, and x-ray and neutron reflectivity).