title: Shear-induced first-order sponge-to-lamellar transition in a lyotropic surfactant system.
abstract: We report a shear-induced sponge (L3) to lamellar (L(alpha)) transition in a surfactant system. Under a constant shear rate, after a delay time t(n) we observe random nucleation and subsequent growth of the L(alpha) phase, demonstrating that the shear-induced transition is first order. A simple argument for the energy of a two-dimensional nucleus accounts for the observed delay and its shear-rate dependence.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique Statistique de l'ENS, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris CEDEX 05, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Léon
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bonn
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Meunier
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Al-Kahwaji
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kellay