Determination of alkyl chain tilt angles in Langmuir monolayers:: A comparison of Brewster angle autocorrelation spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction

Brewster angle autocorrelation spectroscopy (BAAS), a combination of Brewster angle microscopy and the photocorrelation technique is a new method for the quantitative characterization of Langmuir monolayers. In this paper we compare tilt angle measurements in octadecanol monolayers performed using BAAS and grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXD). BAAS offers the possibility of tilt angle measurements in Langmuir manolayers-without any fitted parameters-with a precision similar to GIXD, but ten times faster, GIXD, conversely, offers detailed microscopic information not available from BAAS, The swiftness of BAAS is exploited for a detailed analysis of the phase transitions from the L(2)' phase to the LS (Rotator I) and LS (Rotator II) phases. The L(2)'/LS (Rot I) transition is of first order whereas the L(2)'/LS (Rot II) transition is more probably of weak first order than of second order. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.