Transient x-ray diffraction and its application to materials science and x-ray optics

Time resolved x-ray diffraction and scattering have been applied to the measurement of a wide variety of physical phenomena from chemical reactions to shock wave physics. Interest in this method has heightened in recent years with the advent of versatile, high power, pulsed x-ray sources utilizing laser plasmas, electron beams and other methods. In this article, we will describe some of the fundamentals involved in time resolved x-ray diffraction, review some of the history of its development, and describe some recent progress in the field. In this article we will emphasize the use of laser-plasmas as the x-ray source for transient diffraction.