Abstract
The paper introduces in a systematic way the concepts of order parameters and correlation functions needed for a description of orientational ordering in a liquid crystal or a membrane bilayer. The strong collision and the diffusion model for reorientation are examined in some detail. After discussing the main characteristics of the very popular probes 1,6 diphenylhexatriene (DPH) and perylene the theory of rotational depolarization of fluorescence for a probe in an ordered phase is introduced. Time-dependent and steady state experiments in monodomains are discussed together with their angular dependence. Attention is then focussed on membrane vesicles. The theory for fluorescence depolarization is presented for probes with any orientation of the transition moments with a view to investigating the feasibility of using a certain probe to extract information on ordering and dynamics. Applications of the fluorescence depolarization technique to model and biological membranes are briefly reviewed. An appendix introducing irreducible tensors and Wigner rotation matrices properties is provided in order to keep the paper reasonably self-contained.
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