Application of Dynamic Light Scattering to Aggregation and Gelation

In the last several years there has been considerable interest in the structure of aggregates and gels, in large part due to the high interest in the fractal geometry these objects exhibit. Of course, light scattering is commonly used to determine fractal dimensions, so it is natural enough to run the scattered field into an autocorrelator to find out what the dynamics are up to. This seemingly innocent move is the first step in a long journey into the unusual dynamical behaviors exhibited by these fractal systems. Since the dynamics of aggregates and gels are quite different, it will be helpful to discuss them sequentially.