ABSTRACT
Electro-optical phenomena encompass changes in all possible optical properties of matter caused by the application of an electric field, including changes in energies of quantum states. For transient birefringence studies of liquid-phase samples, the major components of the experimental setup are a high-voltage pulse generator and the sample cell within the standard optical detection system. As vesicles are deformable by the applied field, the ensuing structural changes can be drastic, which may lead to pore formation in the bilayer and fusion of the vesicles. Large unilamellar bilayer vesicles of narrow size distribution were prepared through multiple extrusion from the zwitterionic synthetic phospholipid dioleoylphospahatidylcholine. The interest in nanoscopic metal and semiconductor particles (QDs) arise from their unusual size-dependent optical, electronic, and magnetic properties. The preparation of even subnanometer size, uncapped QDs has been developed in the authors laboratory by utilizing the electroporation of vesicles.
