Nonequilibrium collective dynamics in photoexcited lipid multilayers by time resolved diffuse x-ray scattering

We study the nonequilibrium shape fluctuations in fluorescence labeled phospholipid multibilayers composed of the model lipid DOPC and the well-known lipid dye Texas red, driven out of equilibrium by short laser pulses. The temporal evolution of the lipid bilayer undulations after excitation was recorded by time resolved x-ray diffraction. Already at moderate peak intensities (Pp≤10(5)  W/cm2), pulsed laser illumination leads to significant changes of the undulation modes in a well-defined lateral wavelength band. The observed phenomena evolve on nano- to microsecond time scales after optical excitation, and can be described in terms of a modulation instability in the lipid multilamellar stack.