Two-dimensional dendritic growth in Langmuir monolayers of d-myristoyl alanine

We present a quantitative study of the two-dimensional dendritic growth of liquid-condensed domains observed by fluoresence microscopy in Langmuir monolayers of D-myristoyl alanine. The geometrical analysis of the dendrite tip region shows that the predicted relationship ${\mathrm{\rho }}^2$V/${\mathit{d}}_0$D=const (V is the tip growth velocity, ρ the top curvature radius, ${\mathit{d}}_0$ the capillary length, and D the diffusion coefficient) is reasonably verified. The determination of this constant yields an estimate of the line tension anisotropy.