Abstract
Thin stacks of lipid multibilayers supported on rigid silicon and mica substrates are found to exhibit finite-size effects. Using neutron diffraction we find that the repeat spacing of stacks containing up to a few tens of bilayers depends on their thickness , with increasing with decreasing . Differences in are larger in the low-temperature phase consisting of rigid bilayers than in the high-temperature phase where the bilayers are more flexible. Various scenarios that may be responsible for this counterintuitive observation are discussed.
- Received 8 March 2004
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.70.062902
©2004 American Physical Society