Substrate suppression of thermal roughness in stacked supported bilayers

Curt M. DeCaro, Justin D. Berry, Laurence B. Lurio, Yicong Ma, Gang Chen, Sunil Sinha, Lobat Tayebi, Atul N. Parikh, Zhang Jiang, and Alec R. Sandy

Phys. Rev. E 84, 041914 – Published 13 October 2011

Abstract

We have fabricated a stack of five 1,2-dipalmitoyl- $s n$ -3-phosphatidylethanolamine (DPPE) bilayers supported on a polished silicon substrate in excess water. The density profile of these stacks normal to the substrate was obtained through analysis of x-ray reflectivity. Near the substrate, we find the layer roughness and repeat spacing are both significantly smaller than values found in bulk multilayer systems. The reduced spacing and roughness result from suppression of lateral fluctuations due to the flat substrate boundary. The layer spacing decrease then occurs due to reduced Helfrich repulsion.

Received 3 June 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.84.041914

Authors & Affiliations

Curt M. DeCaro, Justin D. Berry^*, and Laurence B. Lurio^†

Department of Physics, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115, USA

Yicong Ma, Gang Chen, and Sunil Sinha

Department of Physics, University of Californiay, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA

Lobat Tayebi and Atul N. Parikh

Department of Applied Physics, University of California, Davis, Davis 95616, California, USA

Zhang Jiang and Alec R. Sandy

Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA

^*Present address: Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Boston University School of Medicine, 700 Albany St., Boston, MA 02118-2526, USA.
^†llurio@nui.edu

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Vol. 84, Iss. 4 — October 2011

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