Interfacial properties of amphiphilic systems: The approach to Lifshitz points

Recent experiments on oil, water, and surfactant mixtures indicate that these systems can be brought close to a Lifshitz tricritical point. We investigate the interfacial properties of a system in the vicinity of such a point, based on a single-order-parameter Ginzburg-Landau model. We find that the microemulsion does not wet the oil-water interface all the way to the Lifshitz tricritical point. In addition, the scattering intensity shows a characteristic scaling form. The interfacial behavior near Lifshitz critical end points is also examined.