Percolation transition in water–AOT–decane microemulsion investigated by transient grating measurement

We report results from a heterodyne-detected transient grating experiment on a three-component microemulsion system, consisting of water-AOT-decane. We studied the microemulsion characterized by a water-to-AOT ratio of X = 40.8 and a volume fraction phi = 0.50, in a temperature range around the percolation threshold. The measurements have been performed with two exchanged momenta q approximate to 1 and 2 mu m(-1) corresponding to sound frequencies around NO and 420 MHz. The Measured Sound velocities show small but significant evidence of the percolation transition in the temperature domain.