Surface relaxation of lyotropic lamellar phases

Abstract

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 wavenumber, $|\omega |=A{q}^2$. 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 $(d{q}^2{)}^{-1}$, where $d$ is the microscopic lamellar spacing.

7 pages, 1 figure

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