Membrane protein function is regulated by the host lipid bilayer composition. This regulation may depend on specific chemical interactions between proteins and individual molecules in the bilayer, as well as on non-specific interactions between proteins and the bilayer behaving as a physical entity with collective physical properties (e.g. thickness, intrinsic monolayer curvature or elastic mod...

Measurements of lipid bilayer bending modulus by various techniques produce widely divergent results. We attempt to resolve some of this ambiguity by measuring bending modulus in a system that can rapidly process large numbers of samples, yielding population statistics. This system is based on optical stretching of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) in a microfluidic dual-beam optical trap (DBOT...

The mechanical behavior of a ceramic coating and the evolution of this behavior in-service play crucial roles in governing the performance and lifetime of these materials. A protocol is presented that allows for characterization of the in-plane elastic modulus and strain to failure of fragile ceramic coatings. The protocol employs digital image correlation (DIC) to measure time-resolved, full-f...

We report a unique experimental approach to create topological superconductors by inducing superconductivity into epitaxial metallic thin film with strong spin-orbit coupling. Utilizing molecular beam epitaxy technique under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, we are able to achieve (111) oriented single phase of gold (Au) thin film grown on a well-oriented vanadium (V) s-wave superconductor film with...

New three-dimensional (3D) topological phases can emerge in superlattices containing constituents of known two-dimensional topologies. Here we demonstrate that stoichiometric Bi1Te1, which is a natural superlattice of alternating two Bi2Te3 quintuple layers and one Bi bilayer, is a dual 3D topological insulator where a weak topological insulator phase and topological crystalline insulator phase...

We have examined bilayer Co/Cu, Fe/Cu, and Ni/Cu films deposited by molecular-beam epitaxy on hydrogen-terminated @100# silicon substrates. The magnetic metal/copper interface was examined by atomic resolution transmission electron microscopy and compared with the surface morphology as depicted by atomic force microscopy. The general orientation relationships across the magnetic metal/copper in...

We performed a molecular dynamics simulation of dipalmitoylphosphatidylserine (DPPS) bilayer with Na+ counterions. We found that hydrogen bonding between the NH group and the phosphate group leads to a reduction in the area per headgroup when compared to the area in dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine bilayer. The Na+ ions bind to the oxygen in the carboxyl group of serine, thus giving rise to a dip...

We summarize and compare recent Molecular Dynamics simulations on the interactions of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) bilayers in the liquid crystalline phase with a number of small molecules including trehalose, a disaccharide of glucose, alcohols, and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO). The sugar molecules tend to stabilize the structure of the bilayer as they bridge adjacent lipid headgroups. Th...

The discovery of electric field induced band gap opening in bilayer graphene opens a new door for making semiconducting graphene without aggressive size scaling or using expensive substrates. However, bilayer graphene samples have been limited to μm(2) size scale thus far, and synthesis of wafer scale bilayer graphene poses a tremendous challenge. Here we report homogeneous bilayer graphene fil...

A fifth-generation poly(propylene imine) dendrimer decorated with palmitoyland azobenzene-containing alkyl groups forms giant vesicles in aqueous solutions with diameters from 50 nm up to 20 μm and a multilaminar onion-like structure. Dense and ordered arrangement of the azobenzene chromophores in the bilayer structure leads to fluorescence with λmax= 600 nm. The fluorescence intensity can be i...