Near field scatteringPresented at the 17th Conference of the European Colloid & Interface Science Society, Firenze, Italy, September 21?26, 2003.

We present a series of novel, unconventional optical techniques that are capable of performing measurements of low and ultra-low angle scattered light, and are therefore of potential interest for colloid physics and complex fluids in general. These techniques determine the angular intensity distribution through a spatial frequency spectral analysis of the signal recorded in the near field of the scattered light. Experimental results and a comparative discussion of these techniques are presented.