Inelastic x-ray scattering and the high frequency dynamics of molecular liquids

The recently developed inelastic X-ray scattering technique opens a new kinematic region at the observation of molecular liquids vibrational dynamics over the length scales of the interparticle separation. We illustrate the capabilities of this powerful technique through the results obtained from liquid glycerol. A detailed analysis of the high-frequency vibrational dynamics of this system at ambient temperature is reported. New results in the study of structural relaxational dynamics in the high-temperature range (up to T = 560 K) are also discussed.