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    Nanosecond molecular relaxations in lipid bilayers studied by high energy-resolution neutron scattering and in situ diffraction

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    We report a high energy-resolution neutron backscattering study to investigate slow motions on nanosecond time scales in highly oriented solid-supported phospholipid bilayers of the model system deuterated 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine, hydrated with heavy water. Wave-vector-resolved quasielastic neutron scattering is used to determine relaxation times tau, which can be associated with different molecular components, i.e., the lipid acyl chains and the interstitial water molecules in the different phases of the model membrane system. The inelastic data are complemented by both energy-resolved and energy-integrated in situ diffraction. From a combined analysis of the inelastic data in the energy and time domains, the corresponding character of the relaxation, i.e., the exponent of the exponential decay, is also determined. From this analysis we quantify two relaxation processes. We associate the fast relaxation with translational diffusion of lipid and water molecules while the slow process likely stems from collective dynamics

    Molecular motions in lipid bilayers studied by neutron backscattering technique

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    We report a high energy-resolution neutron backscattering study to investigate slow motions on nanosecond time scales in highly oriented solid supported phospholipid bilayers of the model system DMPC-d54 (deuterated 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phoshatidylcholine), hydrated with heavy water. This technique allows to discriminate the onset of mobility at different length scales for the different molecular components, as, e. g., the lipid acyl-chains and the hydration water in between the membrane stacks, respectively, and provides a benchmark test regarding the feasibility of neutron backscattering investigations on these sample systems. We discuss freezing of the lipid acyl-chains, as observed by this technique, and observe a second freezing transition which we attribute to the hydration water

    Grazing-incidence scattering of coherent X-rays from a liquid surface

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    The scattering image produced by coherent X-rays appears grainy and is denoted a speckle pattern. An analysis of the static and time-dependent properties of a speckle pattern generated by scattering of a partially coherent synchrotron beam from a liquid surface is given here. Unique surface sensitivity is achieved by applying the X-rays under a grazing angle of incidence. The observed contrast of the speckle pattern depends on the momentum transfer parallel to the surface, unlike the case of transmission small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), where essentially no q-dependence of the contrast has been observed. The appearance of the speckles and the contrast of the image can be understood qualitatively by use of geometrical arguments and by the fact that liquid surfaces are extremely flat
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