Relaxation of shear-aligned wormlike micelles

We report on the first time-resolved small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) study of the structural relaxation from a shear-induced aligned state back to the isotropic state in a system of giant wormlike reverse micelles. The micelles are formed by lecithin and small amounts of water in cyclohexane. A liquid sample with the micellar volume fraction phi = 0.3 was exposed to a steady shear of (gamma) over dot = 10 s(-1) in a Couette shear cell. This was sufficient to transform the whole sample into an aligned state with the polymer-like micelles preferentially oriented parallel to the velocity direction. After cessation of shear, the sample relaxes back to the equilibrium liquid phase. By time-resolved SANS we could follow the relaxation process, which is characterized by a continuous decrease of the order parameter.