Ripplon scattering using grating heterodyne spectroscopy

Heterodyne photon spectroscopy was used for the study of the viseo-elastic properties of the liquid interface by studying the scattering from thermal ripplons. A theory of a heterodyne apparatus based on a grating is presented, and the heterodyne condition is given in terms of the parameters of the experimental set-up. Emphasis was placed on the study of the instrumental function and its influence on the measurement data. The instrumental function is not always gaussian, but its functional form depends on the parameters of the experimental set-up. An algorithm is suggested to arrive at the center frequency and half width at half height of the spectrum from the noisy experimental data, and applied to the measurement data obtained from ethanol and water surfaces.