  X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy was used to measure the diffusive
dynamics of colloidal particles in a shear flow. The results presented here
show how the intensity autocorrelation functions measure both the diffusive
dynamics of the particles and their flow-induced, convective motion. However,
in the limit of low flow/shear rates, it is possible to obtain the diffusive
component of the dynamics, which makes the method suitable for the study of the
dynamical properties of a large class of complex soft-matter and biological
fluids. An important benefit of this experimental strategy over more
traditional X-ray methods is the minimization of X-ray induced beam damage.
While the method can be applied also for photon correlation spectroscopy in the
visible domain, our analysis shows that the experimental conditions under which
it is possible to measure the diffusive dynamics are easier to achieve at
higher q values (with X-rays).
