Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Lipid Bilayer Experiments with Contact Bubble Bilayers for Patch-Clampers
Published on: January 16, 2019
Tilted bilayer membranes as simple transmission quarter-wave retardation plates
1Department of Electrical Engineering, University of New Orleans, Lakefront, Louisiana 70148, USA. razzam@uno.edu
Abstract:
A tilted bilayer membrane, which consists of two thin films of transparent optically isotropic materials of different refractive indices, can function as a transmission quarter-wave retarder (QWR) at a high angle of incidence. A specific design using a cryolite-Si membrane in the infrared is presented, and its tolerances to small shifts of wavelength, incidence angle, and film thickness errors are discussed. Some designs provide a dual QWR in transmission and reflection. Such devices provide simple linear-to-circular (and circular-to-linear) polarization transformers. Bilayer eighth-wave retarders without diattenuation are also introduced.
Related Concept Videos
Fluid Mosaic Model
Asymmetric Lipid Bilayer
Assembly of the Lipid Bilayer in the ER
A large chunk of any biological membrane is composed of phospholipids. These lipids have a heterogeneous distribution across different subcellular organelles and even between...

