Observation of instability of faceted crystals in lipid monolayers
Abstract The morphological instabilities of two-dimensional hexagonal crystals in lipid monolayers are studied. Fluorescence microscopy indicates that beyond a critical size the faceted crystal develops into dendrites with unusual tip growth behavior, which is not consistent with the current theory of dendritic growth. The morphological transitions in relation to the driving force for two-dimensional crystal growth are also studied.
Dynamic behaviors of fractal-like domains in monolayers
In this paper we report our recent investigations on the morphological evolution of fractal-like domains of the liquid-condensed (LC) phase in lipid monolayers. It is demonstrated that the dimension of the LC domains increases upon continuous illumination of microscope light. The experimental data indicate that the increasing rate of fractal dimension of the LC domains depends on the concentration of fluorescence probes. By analyzing the domain growth process we find that the self-similarity of the pattern disappears gradually during its growth. The possible mechanism behind the observed phenomena is discussed.
Illumination-related pattern formations in lipid monolayers
We report on the phenomenon that in the two phase coexistence region (LC-LE) of a lipid monolayer film the fractal-like solid domains may grow simply by continuous illumination of a fluorescence microscope. The mechanism of this 2D domain growth is discussed. This phenomenon gives insight into the two-dimensional ramified crystallization in monolayers.
Mass Measurements of Very Neutron-Deficient Mo and Tc Isotopes and Their Impact on rp Process Nucleosynthesis
The masses of ten proton-rich nuclides, including the N=Z+1 nuclides 85-Mo and 87-Tc, were measured with the Penning trap mass spectrometer SHIPTRAP. Compared to the Atomic Mass Evaluation 2003 a systematic shift of the mass surface by up to 1.6 MeV is observed causing significant abundance changes of the ashes of astrophysical X-ray bursts. Surprisingly low alpha-separation energies for neutron-deficient Mo and Tc are found, making the formation of a ZrNb cycle in the rp process possible. Such a cycle would impose an upper temperature limit for the synthesis of elements beyond Nb in the rp process.