Surface relaxation of lyotropic lamellar phases

We study the relaxation modes of an interface between a lyotropic lamellar phase and a gas or a simple liquid. The response is found to be qualitatively different from those of both simple liquids and single-component smectic-A liquid crystals. At low rates it is governed by a non-inertial, diffusiv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Europhysics letters 2006-03, Vol.73 (6), p.871-877
Main Authors: Bary-Soroker, H, Diamant, H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
61.30.St
68.03.Kn
82.70.Uv
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Summary:We study the relaxation modes of an interface between a lyotropic lamellar phase and a gas or a simple liquid. The response is found to be qualitatively different from those of both simple liquids and single-component smectic-A liquid crystals. At low rates it is governed by a non-inertial, diffusive mode whose decay rate increases quadratically with wave number, $|\omega|=Aq^2$. The coefficient A depends on the restoring forces of surface tension, compressibility and bending, while the dissipation is dominated by the so-called slip mechanism, i.e., relative motion of the two components of the phase parallel to the lamellae. This surface mode has a large penetration depth which, for sterically stabilised phases, is of order $(dq^2)^{-1}$, where d is the microscopic lamellar spacing.
ISSN:0295-5075
1286-4854
DOI:10.1209/epl/i2005-10476-4