On the use of two-time correlation functions for X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy data analysis

Multi-time correlation functions are especially well suited to study non-equilibrium processes. In particular, two-time correlation functions are widely used in X-ray photon correlation experiments on systems out of equilibrium. One-time correlations are often extracted from two-time correlation functions at different sample ages. However, this way of analysing two-time correlation functions is not unique. Here, two methods to analyse two-time correlation functions are scrutinized, and three illustrative examples are used to discuss the implications for the evaluation of the correlation times and functional shape of the correlations.