0000000000465396
AUTHOR
Nai Ben Ming
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.