Internal structure of microemulsions and sponge phases

Abstract

A simple Ginzburg-Landau theory with a single, scalar order parameter is used to study the microscopic structure of microemulsions and sponge phases. Averages of the internal area and the Gaussian curvature have been calculated by Monte Carlo methods. The results are compared with results obtained from a variational approach in combination with the theory of Gaussian random fields and level surfaces. The results are found to be in reasonable qualitative agreement in the region of the phase diagram, where the microemulsion is stable. However, the variational approach fails to give a transition to the lamellar phase.